diff --git a/python/ray/parameter.py b/python/ray/parameter.py
index cb1c6ef46..af8785886 100644
--- a/python/ray/parameter.py
+++ b/python/ray/parameter.py
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 
 import logging
 
+import numpy as np
+from packaging import version
+
 import ray.ray_constants as ray_constants
 
 
@@ -207,3 +210,10 @@ class RayParams(object):
         if self.redirect_output is not None:
             raise DeprecationWarning(
                 "The redirect_output argument is deprecated.")
+
+        if self.use_pickle:
+            assert (version.parse(
+                np.__version__) >= version.parse("1.16.0")), (
+                    "numpy >= 1.16.0 required for use_pickle=True support. "
+                    "You can use ray.init(use_pickle=False) for older numpy "
+                    "versions, but this may be removed in future versions.")
diff --git a/python/ray/serialization.py b/python/ray/serialization.py
index 3a4c3acc2..7e0c07ea0 100644
--- a/python/ray/serialization.py
+++ b/python/ray/serialization.py
@@ -1,12 +1,15 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import print_function
+
 import hashlib
 import io
 import logging
 import time
+
 import pyarrow
 import pyarrow.plasma as plasma
+
 import ray.cloudpickle as pickle
 from ray import ray_constants, JobID
 import ray.utils
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index 153c9784c..5882584b7 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ def find_version(*filepath):
 
 
 requires = [
-    "numpy >= 1.14",
+    "numpy >= 1.16",
     "filelock",
     "jsonschema",
     "funcsigs",