diff --git a/INSTALL.rst b/INSTALL.rst
index d39638f24ab7..88f5800166fd 100644
--- a/INSTALL.rst
+++ b/INSTALL.rst
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ Dependencies
 Matplotlib requires the following dependencies:
 
 * `Python <https://www.python.org/downloads/>`_ (>= 3.6)
-* `NumPy <http://www.numpy.org>`_ (>= 1.12)
+* `NumPy <http://www.numpy.org>`_ (>= 1.15)
 * `setuptools <https://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`_
 * `cycler <http://matplotlib.org/cycler/>`_ (>= 0.10.0)
 * `dateutil <https://pypi.org/project/python-dateutil>`_ (>= 2.1)
diff --git a/doc/api/next_api_changes/development.rst b/doc/api/next_api_changes/development.rst
index 25b063d98965..9fa11e8a484a 100644
--- a/doc/api/next_api_changes/development.rst
+++ b/doc/api/next_api_changes/development.rst
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Development changes
 -------------------
 
-Matplotlib now requires numpy>=1.12
+Matplotlib now requires numpy>=1.15
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Matplotlib now uses Pillow to save and read pngs
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py b/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
index f3a9bc6d8c6e..c6bc77bf6550 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/__init__.py
@@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ def _check_versions():
             ("cycler", "0.10"),
             ("dateutil", "2.1"),
             ("kiwisolver", "1.0.1"),
-            ("numpy", "1.12"),
+            ("numpy", "1.15"),
             ("pyparsing", "2.0.1"),
     ]:
         module = importlib.import_module(modname)
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index b4d496cdbaff..5ec142df7026 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -35,30 +35,6 @@
 from matplotlib.axes._secondary_axes import SecondaryAxis
 from matplotlib.container import BarContainer, ErrorbarContainer, StemContainer
 
-try:
-    from numpy.lib.histograms import (
-        histogram_bin_edges as _histogram_bin_edges)
-except ImportError:
-    # this function is new in np 1.15
-    def _histogram_bin_edges(arr, bins, range=None, weights=None):
-        # this in True for 1D arrays, and False for None and str
-        if np.ndim(bins) == 1:
-            return bins
-
-        if isinstance(bins, str):
-            # rather than backporting the internals, just do the full
-            # computation.  If this is too slow for users, they can
-            # update numpy, or pick a manual number of bins
-            return np.histogram(arr, bins, range, weights)[1]
-        else:
-            if bins is None:
-                # hard-code numpy's default
-                bins = 10
-            if range is None:
-                range = np.min(arr), np.max(arr)
-
-            return np.linspace(*range, bins + 1)
-
 
 _log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -6698,8 +6674,8 @@ def hist(self, x, bins=None, range=None, density=False, weights=None,
                 _w = np.concatenate(w)
             else:
                 _w = None
-
-            bins = _histogram_bin_edges(np.concatenate(x), bins, bin_range, _w)
+            bins = np.histogram_bin_edges(
+                np.concatenate(x), bins, bin_range, _w)
         else:
             hist_kwargs['range'] = bin_range
 
diff --git a/requirements/testing/travis36minver.txt b/requirements/testing/travis36minver.txt
index 7d35b618b784..2cc084fbce19 100644
--- a/requirements/testing/travis36minver.txt
+++ b/requirements/testing/travis36minver.txt
@@ -2,5 +2,5 @@
 
 cycler==0.10
 python-dateutil==2.1
-numpy==1.12.0
+numpy==1.15.0
 pyparsing==2.0.1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 86795370dddd..eb009c0785ce 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -255,12 +255,12 @@ def run(self):
 
         python_requires='>={}'.format('.'.join(str(n) for n in min_version)),
         setup_requires=[
-            "numpy>=1.12",
+            "numpy>=1.15",
         ],
         install_requires=[
             "cycler>=0.10",
             "kiwisolver>=1.0.1",
-            "numpy>=1.12",
+            "numpy>=1.15",
             "pillow>=6.2.0",
             "pyparsing>=2.0.1,!=2.0.4,!=2.1.2,!=2.1.6",
             "python-dateutil>=2.1",