diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fontconfig/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fontconfig/package.py
index bed27e6e025..311156378a5 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fontconfig/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fontconfig/package.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ class Fontconfig(Package):
 
     depends_on('freetype')
     depends_on('libxml2')
+    depends_on('pkg-config', type='build')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         configure("--prefix=%s" % prefix,