diff --git a/pygeoip/__init__.py b/pygeoip/__init__.py
index 93b5c14..cfbbfad 100644
--- a/pygeoip/__init__.py
+++ b/pygeoip/__init__.py
@@ -546,7 +546,7 @@ def record_by_addr(self, addr):
         ipnum = util.ip2long(addr)
         rec = self._get_record(ipnum)
         if not rec:
-            return None
+            return {}
 
         return rec