diff --git a/db/migrate/20131210181901_migrate_word_counts.rb b/db/migrate/20131210181901_migrate_word_counts.rb
index 35a2c6c3982..bc5d7c9c656 100644
--- a/db/migrate/20131210181901_migrate_word_counts.rb
+++ b/db/migrate/20131210181901_migrate_word_counts.rb
@@ -5,13 +5,13 @@ class MigrateWordCounts < ActiveRecord::Migration
 
     post_ids = execute("SELECT id FROM posts WHERE word_count IS NULL LIMIT 500").map {|r| r['id'].to_i }
     while post_ids.length > 0
-      execute "UPDATE posts SET word_count = array_length(regexp_split_to_array(raw, ' '),1) WHERE id IN (#{post_ids.join(',')})"
+      execute "UPDATE posts SET word_count = COALESCE(array_length(regexp_split_to_array(raw, ' '),1), 0) WHERE id IN (#{post_ids.join(',')})"
       post_ids = execute("SELECT id FROM posts WHERE word_count IS NULL LIMIT 500").map {|r| r['id'].to_i }
     end
 
     topic_ids = execute("SELECT id FROM topics WHERE word_count IS NULL LIMIT 500").map {|r| r['id'].to_i }
     while topic_ids.length > 0
-      execute "UPDATE topics SET word_count = (SELECT SUM(COALESCE(posts.word_count, 0)) FROM posts WHERE posts.topic_id = topics.id) WHERE topics.id IN (#{topic_ids.join(',')})"
+      execute "UPDATE topics SET word_count = COALESCE((SELECT SUM(COALESCE(posts.word_count, 0)) FROM posts WHERE posts.topic_id = topics.id), 0) WHERE topics.id IN (#{topic_ids.join(',')})"
       topic_ids = execute("SELECT id FROM topics WHERE word_count IS NULL LIMIT 500").map {|r| r['id'].to_i }
     end