diff --git a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
index ae14612e99..21f9bffbce 100644
--- a/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
+++ b/akka-actor/src/main/scala/akka/routing/ConsistentHash.scala
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 package akka.routing
 
 import scala.collection.immutable.TreeMap
+import java.lang.Integer.{ rotateLeft ⇒ rotl }
 
 /*                     __                                               *\
 **     ________ ___   / /  ___     Scala API                            **
@@ -26,8 +27,6 @@ import scala.collection.immutable.TreeMap
  *  @since   2.9
  */
 
-import java.lang.Integer.{ rotateLeft ⇒ rotl }
-
 // =============================================================================================
 // Adapted from HashRing.scala in Debasish Ghosh's Redis Client, licensed under Apache 2 license
 // =============================================================================================
@@ -41,44 +40,46 @@ import java.lang.Integer.{ rotateLeft ⇒ rotl }
  * Note that toString of the ring nodes are used for the node
  * hash, i.e. make sure it is different for different nodes.
  *
- * Not thread-safe, to be used from within an Actor or protected some other way.
  */
-class ConsistentHash[T](nodes: Iterable[T], replicas: Int) {
-  private var ring = TreeMap[Int, T]()
+class ConsistentHash[T] private (replicas: Int, ring: TreeMap[Int, T]) {
+
+  import ConsistentHash._
 
   if (replicas < 1) throw new IllegalArgumentException("replicas must be >= 1")
 
-  nodes.foreach(this += _)
-
   /**
    * Adds a node to the ring.
+   * Note that the instance is immutable and this
+   * operation returns a new instance.
    */
-  def +=(node: T): Unit = {
-    (1 to replicas) foreach { replica ⇒
-      ring += (nodeHashFor(node, replica) -> node)
-    }
+  def :+(node: T): ConsistentHash[T] = {
+    new ConsistentHash(replicas, ring ++ ((1 to replicas) map { r ⇒ (nodeHashFor(node, r) -> node) }))
   }
 
   /**
    * Adds a node to the ring.
+   * Note that the instance is immutable and this
+   * operation returns a new instance.
    * JAVA API
    */
-  def add(node: T): Unit = this += node
+  def add(node: T): ConsistentHash[T] = this :+ node
 
   /**
    * Removes a node from the ring.
+   * Note that the instance is immutable and this
+   * operation returns a new instance.
    */
-  def -=(node: T): Unit = {
-    (1 to replicas) foreach { replica ⇒
-      ring -= nodeHashFor(node, replica)
-    }
+  def :-(node: T): ConsistentHash[T] = {
+    new ConsistentHash(replicas, ring -- ((1 to replicas) map { r ⇒ nodeHashFor(node, r) }))
   }
 
   /**
    * Removes a node from the ring.
+   * Note that the instance is immutable and this
+   * operation returns a new instance.
    * JAVA API
    */
-  def remove(node: T): Unit = this -= node
+  def remove(node: T): ConsistentHash[T] = this :- node
 
   /**
    * Get the node responsible for the data key.
@@ -100,7 +101,24 @@ class ConsistentHash[T](nodes: Iterable[T], replicas: Int) {
    */
   def isEmpty: Boolean = ring.isEmpty
 
-  private def nodeHashFor(node: T, replica: Int): Int = {
+}
+
+object ConsistentHash {
+  def apply[T](nodes: Iterable[T], replicas: Int) = {
+    new ConsistentHash(replicas, TreeMap.empty[Int, T] ++
+      (for (node ← nodes; replica ← 1 to replicas) yield (nodeHashFor(node, replica) -> node)))
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Factory method to create a ConsistentHash
+   * JAVA API
+   */
+  def create[T](nodes: java.lang.Iterable[T], replicas: Int) = {
+    import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
+    apply(nodes.asScala, replicas)
+  }
+
+  private def nodeHashFor(node: Any, replica: Int): Int = {
     hashFor((node + ":" + replica).getBytes("UTF-8"))
   }
 
@@ -189,11 +207,11 @@ object MurmurHash {
   final private val seedArray: Int = 0x3c074a61
 
   /** The first 23 magic integers from the first stream are stored here */
-  val storedMagicA: Array[Int] =
+  private val storedMagicA: Array[Int] =
     Iterator.iterate(hiddenMagicA)(nextMagicA).take(23).toArray
 
   /** The first 23 magic integers from the second stream are stored here */
-  val storedMagicB: Array[Int] =
+  private val storedMagicB: Array[Int] =
     Iterator.iterate(hiddenMagicB)(nextMagicB).take(23).toArray
 
   /** Begin a new hash with a seed value. */
diff --git a/akka-docs/project/migration-guide-2.0.x-2.1.x.rst b/akka-docs/project/migration-guide-2.0.x-2.1.x.rst
index fd5629ea3b..2a9f925f7f 100644
--- a/akka-docs/project/migration-guide-2.0.x-2.1.x.rst
+++ b/akka-docs/project/migration-guide-2.0.x-2.1.x.rst
@@ -286,7 +286,6 @@ Both Actors and UntypedActors using ``Stash`` now overrides postStop to make sur
 stashed messages are put into the dead letters when the actor stops, make sure you call
 super.postStop if you override it.
 
-
 Forward of Terminated message
 =============================
 
@@ -359,3 +358,20 @@ v2.1::
       -requestedCapacity, stopDelay)
 
 
+ConsistentHash
+==============
+
+``akka.routing.ConsistentHash`` has been changed to an immutable data structure.
+
+v2.0::
+
+  val consistentHash = new ConsistentHash(Seq(a1, a2, a3), replicas = 10)
+  consistentHash += a4
+  val a = consistentHash.nodeFor(data)
+
+v2.1::
+
+  var consistentHash = ConsistentHash(Seq(a1, a2, a3), replicas = 10)
+  consistentHash = consistentHash :+ a4
+  val a = consistentHash.nodeFor(data)
+