diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index bde88f1e2ca..f7429a99be4 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -150,6 +150,10 @@ endif()
 
 # PkgConfig
 if(VW_INSTALL)
+  FOREACH(BOOST_LIBRARY ${Boost_LIBRARIES})
+    SET (BOOST_LINK_LIBRARIES "${BOOST_LINK_LIBRARIES} ${BOOST_LIBRARY}")
+  ENDFOREACH()
+
   configure_file(libvw.pc.in libvw.pc)
   configure_file(libvw_c_wrapper.pc.in libvw_c_wrapper.pc)
   install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/libvw.pc ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/libvw_c_wrapper.pc DESTINATION lib/pkgconfig)
diff --git a/libvw.pc.in b/libvw.pc.in
index 2973182bd4c..dd4b4cb725b 100644
--- a/libvw.pc.in
+++ b/libvw.pc.in
@@ -8,5 +8,5 @@ Description: Vowpal Wabbit Machine Learning System
 URL: @PACKAGE_URL@
 Version: @PACKAGE_VERSION@
 Requires: zlib
-Libs: -L@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@/lib -lvw -lallreduce @CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT@ @Boost_LIBRARIES@
+Libs: -L@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@/lib -lvw -lallreduce @CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT@ @BOOST_LINK_LIBRARIES@
 Cflags: -I@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@/include/vowpalwabbit