diff --git a/flang/lib/Semantics/runtime-type-info.cpp b/flang/lib/Semantics/runtime-type-info.cpp
index 66c42160ee9e9..9845a190bc756 100644
--- a/flang/lib/Semantics/runtime-type-info.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Semantics/runtime-type-info.cpp
@@ -555,10 +555,11 @@ const Symbol *RuntimeTableBuilder::DescribeType(Scope &dtScope) {
           },
           symbol.details());
     }
-    // Sort the data component symbols by offset before emitting them
+    // Sort the data component symbols by offset before emitting them, placing
+    // the parent component first if any.
     std::sort(dataComponentSymbols.begin(), dataComponentSymbols.end(),
         [](const Symbol *x, const Symbol *y) {
-          return x->offset() < y->offset();
+          return x->test(Symbol::Flag::ParentComp) || x->offset() < y->offset();
         });
     std::vector<evaluate::StructureConstructor> dataComponents;
     for (const Symbol *symbol : dataComponentSymbols) {
diff --git a/flang/test/Semantics/typeinfo10.f90 b/flang/test/Semantics/typeinfo10.f90
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..43c418bf45d0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flang/test/Semantics/typeinfo10.f90
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+!RUN: bbc --dump-symbols %s | FileCheck %s
+!RUN: %flang_fc1 -fdebug-dump-symbols %s | FileCheck %s
+
+! Test that empty parent types are still set first in the
+! runtime info global array describing components.
+module empty_parent
+ type :: z
+ end type
+
+ type, extends(z) :: t
+  integer :: a
+ end type
+end module
+! CHECK: .c.t, SAVE{{.*}}.n.z{{.*}}n.a