diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
index 3dfd5502778b..8ec650d9eeae 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/axes/_axes.py
@@ -4199,8 +4199,9 @@ def scatter(self, x, y, s=None, c=None, marker=None, cmap=None, norm=None,
         if (c_none or
                 co is not None or
                 isinstance(c, str) or
-                (isinstance(c, collections.abc.Iterable) and
-                    isinstance(c[0], str))):
+                (isinstance(c, collections.Iterable) and
+                    len(c) > 0 and
+                    isinstance(cbook.safe_first_element(c), str))):
             c_array = None
         else:
             try:  # First, does 'c' look suitable for value-mapping?
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
index 6a4900dc3408..629517406799 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_axes.py
@@ -5820,7 +5820,7 @@ def test_spines_properbbox_after_zoom():
     bb = ax.spines['bottom'].get_window_extent(fig.canvas.get_renderer())
     # this is what zoom calls:
     ax._set_view_from_bbox((320, 320, 500, 500), 'in',
-                      None, False, False)
+                           None, False, False)
     bb2 = ax.spines['bottom'].get_window_extent(fig.canvas.get_renderer())
     np.testing.assert_allclose(bb.get_points(), bb2.get_points(), rtol=1e-6)
 
@@ -5848,3 +5848,18 @@ def test_gettightbbox_ignoreNaN():
     t = ax.text(np.NaN, 1, 'Boo')
     renderer = fig.canvas.get_renderer()
     np.testing.assert_allclose(ax.get_tightbbox(renderer).width, 532.444444)
+
+
+def test_scatter_series_non_zero_index(pd):
+    # create non-zero index
+    ids = range(10, 18)
+    x = pd.Series(np.random.uniform(size=8), index=ids)
+    y = pd.Series(np.random.uniform(size=8), index=ids)
+    c = pd.Series([1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0], index=ids)
+    plt.scatter(x, y, c)
+
+
+def test_scatter_empty_data():
+    # making sure this does not raise an exception
+    plt.scatter([], [])
+    plt.scatter([], [], s=[], c=[])
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_cbook.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_cbook.py
index 745844fb6a1c..243bca3731d6 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_cbook.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_cbook.py
@@ -482,3 +482,10 @@ def test_flatiter():
 
     assert 0 == next(it)
     assert 1 == next(it)
+
+
+def test_safe_first_element_pandas_series(pd):
+    # delibrately create a pandas series with index not starting from 0
+    s = pd.Series(range(5), index=range(10, 15))
+    actual = cbook.safe_first_element(s)
+    assert actual == 0