diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
index e32e4aa5b83124681aa29fbeac51fbb9a18ebd4a..35b63348323934a6c969fd921c1487a027afd2f2 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/SparkContext.scala
@@ -795,7 +795,7 @@ class SparkContext(config: SparkConf) extends Logging with ExecutorAllocationCli
   def makeRDD[T: ClassTag](seq: Seq[(T, Seq[String])]): RDD[T] = withScope {
     assertNotStopped()
     val indexToPrefs = seq.zipWithIndex.map(t => (t._2, t._1._2)).toMap
-    new ParallelCollectionRDD[T](this, seq.map(_._1), seq.size, indexToPrefs)
+    new ParallelCollectionRDD[T](this, seq.map(_._1), math.max(seq.size, 1), indexToPrefs)
   }
 
   /**