diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 5f37c2518..97fdf7326 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+matplotlib>=1.0.0
+numpy>=1.2.1
 pyproj>=1.9.3
 pyshp>=1.2.0
 six
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4281753ad..5afc9994f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,20 +1,20 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 
-import sys, glob, os, subprocess
+import glob
+import io
+import os
+import sys
+from setuptools.dist import Distribution
 
 if sys.version_info < (2, 6):
     raise SystemExit("""matplotlib and the basemap toolkit require Python 2.6 or later.""")
 
-from distutils.dist import Distribution
-from distutils.util import convert_path
-from distutils import ccompiler, sysconfig
-
 # Do not require numpy for just querying the package
 # Taken from the netcdf-python setup file (which took it from h5py setup file).
 inc_dirs = []
 if any('--' + opt in sys.argv for opt in Distribution.display_option_names +
        ['help-commands', 'help']) or sys.argv[1] == 'egg_info':
-    from distutils.core import setup, Extension
+    from setuptools import setup, Extension
 else:
     import numpy
     # Use numpy versions if they are available.
@@ -23,6 +23,14 @@
     inc_dirs.append(numpy.get_include())
 
 
+def get_install_requirements(path):
+    path = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), path)
+    with io.open(path, encoding='utf-8') as fp:
+        content = fp.read()
+    return [req for req in content.split("\n")
+                if req != '' and not req.startswith('#')]
+
+
 def checkversion(GEOS_dir):
     """check geos C-API header file (geos_c.h)"""
     try:
@@ -106,13 +114,7 @@ def checkversion(GEOS_dir):
 datafiles = [os.path.join('data',os.path.basename(f)) for f in datafiles]
 package_data = {'mpl_toolkits.basemap':datafiles}
 
-requirements = [
-  "numpy>=1.2.1", 
-  "matplotlib>=1.0.0",
-  "pyproj >= 1.9.3", 
-  "pyshp >= 1.2.0",
-  "six",
-]
+install_requires = get_install_requirements("requirements.txt")
 
 __version__ = "1.1.0"
 setup(
@@ -130,7 +132,7 @@ def checkversion(GEOS_dir):
   author_email      = "jeffrey.s.whitaker@noaa.gov",
   maintainer        = "Ben Root",
   maintainer_email  = "ben.v.root@gmail.com",
-  install_requires  = requirements,
+  install_requires  = install_requires,
   platforms         = ["any"],
   license           = "OSI Approved",
   keywords          = ["python","plotting","plots","graphs","charts","GIS","mapping","map projections","maps"],
@@ -145,6 +147,6 @@ def checkversion(GEOS_dir):
   packages          = packages,
   namespace_packages = namespace_packages,
   package_dir       = package_dirs,
-  ext_modules       = extensions,   
+  ext_modules       = extensions,
   package_data = package_data
   )