diff --git a/cpp/src/parquet/size_statistics.cc b/cpp/src/parquet/size_statistics.cc
index d6fd351382953..a02cef7aba46f 100644
--- a/cpp/src/parquet/size_statistics.cc
+++ b/cpp/src/parquet/size_statistics.cc
@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@ void SizeStatistics::Validate(const ColumnDescriptor* descr) const {
     throw ParquetException("Unencoded byte array data bytes does not support " +
                            TypeToString(descr->physical_type()));
   }
+  if (!unencoded_byte_array_data_bytes.has_value() &&
+      descr->physical_type() == Type::BYTE_ARRAY) {
+    throw ParquetException("Missing unencoded byte array data bytes");
+  }
 }
 
 void SizeStatistics::Reset() {