diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index f686d5ff594e6b93c6e6f732e7a1c97aa18c4e49..5098f144b92defd53e94f9f24184e3ade0672928 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -457,6 +457,7 @@ static int __run_perf_stat(int argc, const char **argv)
 			perror("failed to prepare workload");
 			return -1;
 		}
+		child_pid = evsel_list->workload.pid;
 	}
 
 	if (group)