diff --git a/cpp/src/io/utilities/data_casting.cu b/cpp/src/io/utilities/data_casting.cu
index 1772e5e43fa..d16237d7afe 100644
--- a/cpp/src/io/utilities/data_casting.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/io/utilities/data_casting.cu
@@ -924,6 +924,9 @@ std::unique_ptr<column> parse_data(
   if (col_size == 0) { return make_empty_column(col_type); }
   auto d_null_count    = rmm::device_scalar<size_type>(null_count, stream);
   auto null_count_data = d_null_count.data();
+  if (null_mask.is_empty()) {
+    null_mask = cudf::detail::create_null_mask(col_size, mask_state::ALL_VALID, stream, mr);
+  }
 
   // Prepare iterator that returns (string_ptr, string_length)-pairs needed by type conversion
   auto str_tuples = thrust::make_transform_iterator(offset_length_begin, to_string_view_pair{data});