diff --git a/Lib/multiprocessing/pool.py b/Lib/multiprocessing/pool.py
index 862a60e92cf..c66876a856c 100644
--- a/Lib/multiprocessing/pool.py
+++ b/Lib/multiprocessing/pool.py
@@ -125,6 +125,8 @@ class Pool(object):
                 processes = cpu_count()
             except NotImplementedError:
                 processes = 1
+        if processes < 1:
+            raise ValueError("Number of processes must be at least 1")
 
         if initializer is not None and not hasattr(initializer, '__call__'):
             raise TypeError('initializer must be a callable')
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py b/Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py
index fe19de03715..de5e46a1e47 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_multiprocessing.py
@@ -1085,6 +1085,9 @@ class _TestPool(BaseTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(sorted(it), map(sqr, range(1000)))
 
     def test_make_pool(self):
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, multiprocessing.Pool, -1)
+        self.assertRaises(ValueError, multiprocessing.Pool, 0)
+
         p = multiprocessing.Pool(3)
         self.assertEqual(3, len(p._pool))
         p.close()