diff --git a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSet.java b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSet.java
index f72e07fce92fd..5468c47b4202f 100644
--- a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSet.java
+++ b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSet.java
@@ -102,4 +102,12 @@ public boolean isSet(int index) {
   public int nextSetBit(int fromIndex) {
     return BitSetMethods.nextSetBit(baseObject, baseOffset, fromIndex, numWords);
   }
+
+  /*
+   * @return whether any bit in the BitSet is set
+   */
+  public boolean anySet() {
+    return BitSetMethods.anySet(baseObject, baseOffset, numWords);
+  }
+
 }
diff --git a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetMethods.java b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetMethods.java
index f30626d8f4317..573268c4f2f68 100644
--- a/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetMethods.java
+++ b/unsafe/src/main/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetMethods.java
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
  */
 public final class BitSetMethods {
 
-  private static final long WORD_SIZE = 8;
+  static final long WORD_SIZE = 8;
 
   private BitSetMethods() {
     // Make the default constructor private, since this only holds static methods.
@@ -70,9 +70,10 @@ public static boolean isSet(Object baseObject, long baseOffset, int index) {
   /**
    * Returns {@code true} if any bit is set.
    */
-  public static boolean anySet(Object baseObject, long baseOffset, long bitSetWidthInBytes) {
-    for (int i = 0; i <= bitSetWidthInBytes; i++) {
-      if (PlatformDependent.UNSAFE.getByte(baseObject, baseOffset + i) != 0) {
+  public static boolean anySet(Object baseObject, long baseOffset, long bitSetWidthInWords) {
+    long addr = baseOffset;
+    for (int i = 0; i < bitSetWidthInWords; i++, addr += WORD_SIZE) {
+      if (PlatformDependent.UNSAFE.getLong(baseObject, addr) != 0) {
         return true;
       }
     }
diff --git a/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetSuite.java b/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetSuite.java
index e3a824e29b768..18393db9f382f 100644
--- a/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetSuite.java
+++ b/unsafe/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/unsafe/bitset/BitSetSuite.java
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ public void basicOps() {
     for (int i = 0; i < bs.capacity(); i++) {
       Assert.assertFalse(bs.isSet(i));
     }
+    // another form of asserting that the bit set is empty
+    Assert.assertFalse(bs.anySet());
 
     // Set every bit and check it.
     for (int i = 0; i < bs.capacity(); i++) {
@@ -52,6 +54,11 @@ public void basicOps() {
       bs.unset(i);
       Assert.assertFalse(bs.isSet(i));
     }
+
+    // Make sure anySet() can detect any set bit
+    bs = createBitSet(256);
+    bs.set(64);
+    Assert.assertTrue(bs.anySet());
   }
 
   @Test