diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index ea82301d9d..a32b657ef8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -2362,6 +2362,10 @@ if(NOT CURL_DISABLE_INSTALL)
   configure_file(
     "${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/libcurl.pc.in"
     "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" @ONLY)
+  # Strip trailing spaces
+  file(READ "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" _libcurl_pc)
+  string(REGEX REPLACE " +\n" "\n" _libcurl_pc "${_libcurl_pc}")
+  file(WRITE "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc" "${_libcurl_pc}")
   install(FILES "${PROJECT_BINARY_DIR}/libcurl.pc"
     DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig")
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d894dd48d0..bf40500b99 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -5555,10 +5555,13 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([\
   tests/http/config.ini \
   tests/http/Makefile \
   projects/Makefile \
-  projects/vms/Makefile \
-  libcurl.pc
+  projects/vms/Makefile
 ])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([curl-config], [chmod +x curl-config])
+AC_CONFIG_FILES([libcurl.pc], [
+  dnl strip trailing spaces
+  "$SED" 's/ *$//g' libcurl.pc > libcurl.pc.tmp && mv libcurl.pc.tmp libcurl.pc
+], [SED="$SED"])
 AC_OUTPUT
 
 SUPPORT_PROTOCOLS_LOWER=`echo "$SUPPORT_PROTOCOLS" | tr A-Z a-z`