diff --git a/emmet-builders/MANIFEST.in b/emmet-builders/MANIFEST.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1bff7e1746
--- /dev/null
+++ b/emmet-builders/MANIFEST.in
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+include emmet/builders/vasp/mp_potcar_stats.json.gz
diff --git a/emmet-builders/setup.py b/emmet-builders/setup.py
index 90931ab272..00ce3424e1 100644
--- a/emmet-builders/setup.py
+++ b/emmet-builders/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
     long_description_content_type="text/markdown",
     url="https://github.com/materialsproject/emmet",
     packages=find_namespace_packages(include=["emmet.*"]),
-    package_data={"emmet.builders": ["*.json", "*.json.gz"]},
+    include_package_data=True,
     install_requires=[
         "emmet-core[all]",
         "emmet-core[ml]",