diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..00174e3e6c2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[run]
+source=matplotlib
+[report]
+omit =
+    matplotlib/tests/*
+    matplotlib/testing/*
+
+exclude_lines =
+    raise NotImplemented
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b56c466ef4e3..dfc03898ba9d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -67,3 +67,10 @@ examples/tests/*
 texput.log
 texput.aux
 result_images
+
+# Coverage generated files #
+############################
+
+.coverage
+.coverage.*
+cover/
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 165ea984985d..8c1fbfd97011 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ matrix:
       env: BUILD_DOCS=true
 
 install:
-  - pip install -q nose python-dateutil $NUMPY pep8 pyparsing pillow sphinx!=1.3.0
+  - pip install python-dateutil $NUMPY pep8 pyparsing pillow sphinx!=1.3.0 coveralls coverage
+  - pip install --upgrade nose
 
   # We manually install humor sans using the package from Ubuntu 14.10. Unfortunatly humor sans is not
   # availible in the Ubuntu version used by Travis but we can manually install the deb from a later
@@ -66,7 +67,7 @@ install:
       cp Felipa-Regular.ttf ~/.fonts
       fc-cache -f -v
     fi;
-  - python setup.py install
+  - python setup.py install --single-version-externally-managed --record=/dev/null
 
 script:
   # The number of processes is hardcoded, because using too many causes the
@@ -142,3 +143,10 @@ after_success:
         fi
       fi
   fi
+  if [[ $BUILD_DOCS == false && $TEST_ARGS != "--pep8" ]]; then
+     # account for us running the test out-of-repo and coveralls expects in-repo
+     # tests
+     mv cover .coverage ../matplotlib
+     cd ../matplotlib
+     coveralls
+  fi
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests.py b/tests.py
index 620aeeaa4a38..551c9e1453b3 100755
--- a/tests.py
+++ b/tests.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 import nose
 from matplotlib.testing.noseclasses import KnownFailure
 from matplotlib import default_test_modules
-
+from nose.plugins.cover import Coverage
 from matplotlib import font_manager
 # Make sure the font caches are created before starting any possibly
 # parallel tests
@@ -27,7 +27,12 @@
     while not os.path.exists(font_manager._fmcache):
         time.sleep(0.5)
 
+plugins = [KnownFailure, Coverage]
+
 plugins = [KnownFailure]
+env = {"NOSE_WITH_COVERAGE": 1,
+       'NOSE_COVER_PACKAGE': 'matplotlib',
+       'NOSE_COVER_HTML': 1}
 
 # Nose doesn't automatically instantiate all of the plugins in the
 # child processes, so we have to provide the multiprocess plugin with
@@ -45,7 +50,8 @@ def run():
         faulthandler.enable()
 
     nose.main(addplugins=[x() for x in plugins],
-              defaultTest=default_test_modules)
+              defaultTest=default_test_modules,
+              env=env)
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     if '--no-pep8' in sys.argv: