diff --git a/spacy/download.py b/spacy/download.py
index 9b2d65ffc..af15e1867 100644
--- a/spacy/download.py
+++ b/spacy/download.py
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ from . import util
 
 def download(lang, force=False, fail_on_exist=True, data_path=None):
     if not data_path:
-        data_path = util.get_data_path()
+        data_path = util.get_data_path(require_exists=False)
 
     # spaCy uses pathlib, and util.get_data_path returns a pathlib.Path object,
     # but sputnik (which we're using below) doesn't use pathlib and requires
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 1818f0be9..4ab1f71f0 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -32,8 +32,11 @@ def get_lang_class(name):
     return LANGUAGES[lang]
 
 
-def get_data_path():
-    return _data_path if _data_path.exists() else None
+def get_data_path(require_exists=True):
+    if not require_exists:
+        return _data_path
+    else:
+        return _data_path if _data_path.exists() else None
 
 
 def set_data_path(path):