diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 48e428cc8..4b6b9dc84 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -46,6 +46,15 @@ A C++ toolchain: [required]
 
 for libcamera: [required]
 	meson ninja-build python3-yaml
+        meson (>= 0.47) ninja-build python3-yaml
+
+        If your distribution doesn't provide a recent enough version of meson,
+        you can install or upgrade it using pip3.
+
+        .. code::
+
+            pip3 install --user meson
+            pip3 install --user --upgrade meson
 
 for device hotplug enumeration: [optional]
 	pkg-config libudev-dev
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 37cf4d665..0bbd24b2a 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('libcamera', 'c', 'cpp',
-    meson_version : '>= 0.40',
+    meson_version : '>= 0.47',
     version : '0.0.0',
     default_options : [
         'werror=true',