diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-containers.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-containers.nix
index 5db3a336f85d..bde1ff9eeb98 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-containers.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/nixos-containers.nix
@@ -834,7 +834,10 @@ in
               script = startScript containerConfig;
               postStart = postStartScript containerConfig;
               serviceConfig = serviceDirectives containerConfig;
-              unitConfig.RequiresMountsFor = lib.optional (!containerConfig.ephemeral) "${stateDirectory}/%i";
+              unitConfig.RequiresMountsFor = lib.optional (!containerConfig.ephemeral) "${stateDirectory}/%i"
+                ++ builtins.map
+                  (d: if d.hostPath != null then d.hostPath else d.mountPoint)
+                  (builtins.attrValues cfg.bindMounts);
               environment.root = if containerConfig.ephemeral then "/run/nixos-containers/%i" else "${stateDirectory}/%i";
             } // (
             optionalAttrs containerConfig.autoStart
diff --git a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
index bc586a609271..c5af2ce1fccb 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/all-tests.nix
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ in {
   containers-physical_interfaces = handleTest ./containers-physical_interfaces.nix {};
   containers-portforward = handleTest ./containers-portforward.nix {};
   containers-reloadable = handleTest ./containers-reloadable.nix {};
+  containers-require-bind-mounts = handleTest ./containers-require-bind-mounts.nix {};
   containers-restart_networking = handleTest ./containers-restart_networking.nix {};
   containers-tmpfs = handleTest ./containers-tmpfs.nix {};
   containers-unified-hierarchy = handleTest ./containers-unified-hierarchy.nix {};
diff --git a/nixos/tests/containers-require-bind-mounts.nix b/nixos/tests/containers-require-bind-mounts.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5f986fd3e280
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/containers-require-bind-mounts.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import ./make-test-python.nix ({ lib, ... }: {
+  name = "containers-require-bind-mounts";
+  meta.maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ kira-bruneau ];
+
+  nodes.machine = {
+    containers.require-bind-mounts = {
+      bindMounts = { "/srv/data" = {}; };
+      config = {};
+    };
+
+    virtualisation.fileSystems = {
+      "/srv/data" = {
+        fsType = "tmpfs";
+        options = [ "noauto" ];
+      };
+    };
+  };
+
+  testScript = ''
+    machine.wait_for_unit("default.target")
+
+    assert "require-bind-mounts" in machine.succeed("nixos-container list")
+    assert "down" in machine.succeed("nixos-container status require-bind-mounts")
+    assert "inactive" in machine.fail("systemctl is-active srv-data.mount")
+
+    with subtest("bind mount host paths must be mounted to run container"):
+      machine.succeed("nixos-container start require-bind-mounts")
+      assert "up" in machine.succeed("nixos-container status require-bind-mounts")
+      assert "active" in machine.succeed("systemctl status srv-data.mount")
+
+      machine.succeed("systemctl stop srv-data.mount")
+      assert "down" in machine.succeed("nixos-container status require-bind-mounts")
+      assert "inactive" in machine.fail("systemctl is-active srv-data.mount")
+    '';
+})