diff --git a/ibis/expr/datatypes/core.py b/ibis/expr/datatypes/core.py
index 2a2cfa4eae789..decb29500e34b 100644
--- a/ibis/expr/datatypes/core.py
+++ b/ibis/expr/datatypes/core.py
@@ -831,13 +831,23 @@ def _pretty_piece(self) -> str:
 
 @public
 class Struct(Parametric, MapSet):
-    """Structured values."""
+    """A nested type with ordered fields of any type, analogous to a dataclass in Python.
+
+    eg a Struct might have a field a of type int64 and a field b of type string.
+    """
 
     fields: FrozenOrderedDict[str, DataType]
 
     scalar = "StructScalar"
     column = "StructColumn"
 
+    def __init__(self, fields, nullable=True):
+        # We could do this validation in a type annotation, but I thought this
+        # was common enough to warrant a nicer error message.
+        if not fields:
+            raise TypeError("Structs require at least one field")
+        super().__init__(fields=fields, nullable=nullable)
+
     @classmethod
     def from_tuples(
         cls, pairs: Iterable[tuple[str, str | DataType]], nullable: bool = True
diff --git a/ibis/expr/datatypes/value.py b/ibis/expr/datatypes/value.py
index ad40f9047ecf3..dceccf048d6ab 100644
--- a/ibis/expr/datatypes/value.py
+++ b/ibis/expr/datatypes/value.py
@@ -42,8 +42,6 @@ def infer(value: Any) -> dt.DataType:
 @infer.register(collections.OrderedDict)
 def infer_struct(value: Mapping[str, Any]) -> dt.Struct:
     """Infer the [`Struct`](./datatypes.qmd#ibis.expr.datatypes.Struct) type of `value`."""
-    if not value:
-        raise TypeError("Empty struct type not supported")
     fields = {name: infer(val) for name, val in value.items()}
     return dt.Struct(fields)
 
diff --git a/ibis/tests/expr/test_struct.py b/ibis/tests/expr/test_struct.py
index de297a4e4a586..6c87da2102958 100644
--- a/ibis/tests/expr/test_struct.py
+++ b/ibis/tests/expr/test_struct.py
@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ def s():
     return ibis.table(dict(a="struct<f: float, g: string>"), name="s")
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("val", [{}, []])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("typ", [None, "struct<>"])
+def test_struct_factory_empty(val, typ):
+    with pytest.raises(TypeError):
+        ibis.struct(val, type=typ)
+
+
 def test_struct_operations():
     value = OrderedDict(
         [