diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/core/groupby/groupby.py b/python/cudf/cudf/core/groupby/groupby.py
index c48e5109ff2..73e6774f5ce 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/core/groupby/groupby.py
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/core/groupby/groupby.py
@@ -592,7 +592,9 @@ def agg(self, func):
                     # Structs lose their labels which we reconstruct here
                     col = col._with_type_metadata(cudf.ListDtype(orig_dtype))
 
-                if (
+                if agg_kind in {"COUNT", "SIZE"}:
+                    data[key] = col.astype("int64")
+                elif (
                     self.obj.empty
                     and (
                         isinstance(agg_name, str)
@@ -609,8 +611,6 @@ def agg(self, func):
                     )
                 ):
                     data[key] = col.astype(orig_dtype)
-                elif agg_kind in {"COUNT", "SIZE"}:
-                    data[key] = col.astype("int64")
                 else:
                     data[key] = col
         data = ColumnAccessor(data, multiindex=multilevel)
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/tests/groupby/test_agg.py b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/groupby/test_agg.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7919ee4a9f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/tests/groupby/test_agg.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2023, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+import numpy as np
+import pytest
+
+import cudf
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "empty",
+    [True, False],
+    ids=["empty", "nonempty"],
+)
+def test_agg_count_dtype(empty):
+    df = cudf.DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 1], "c": ["a", "b", "c"]})
+    if empty:
+        df = df.iloc[:0]
+    result = df.groupby("a").agg({"c": "count"})
+    assert result["c"].dtype == np.dtype("int64")