diff --git a/locustfile.py b/locustfile.py
index 2197225..38d4795 100644
--- a/locustfile.py
+++ b/locustfile.py
@@ -75,7 +75,23 @@ def _(parser):
 
 
 @events.init.add_listener
-def check_for_dataset(environment: Environment, **kwargs):
+def on_locust_init(environment, **_kwargs):
+    if not isinstance(environment.runner, WorkerRunner):
+        # For Worker runners dataset setup is deferred until the test starts,
+        # to avoid multiple processes trying to downlaod at the same time.
+        setup_dataset(environment)
+
+
+def setup_dataset(environment: Environment, skip_download_and_populate: bool = False):
+    """
+    Sets up the dataset specified via the --pinecone_dataset argument:
+     - downloads it if not already present in local cache
+     - reads 'documents' data (if needed for population)
+     - reads 'queries' data if present.
+     - populates the index with the documents data (if requested).
+    The Dataset is assigned to `environment.dataset` for later use by Users
+    making requests.
+    """
     dataset_name = environment.parsed_options.pinecone_dataset
     if not dataset_name:
         environment.dataset = Dataset()
@@ -93,15 +109,25 @@ def check_for_dataset(environment: Environment, **kwargs):
         sys.exit(1)
 
     environment.dataset = Dataset(dataset_name, environment.parsed_options.pinecone_dataset_cache)
-    environment.dataset.load()
+    environment.dataset.load(skip_download=skip_download_and_populate)
     populate = environment.parsed_options.pinecone_populate_index
-    if populate != "never":
+    if not skip_download_and_populate and populate != "never":
         logging.info(
             f"Populating index {environment.host} with {len(environment.dataset.documents)} vectors from dataset '{dataset_name}'")
         environment.dataset.upsert_into_index(environment.host,
                                               skip_if_count_identical=(populate == "if-count-mismatch"))
 
 
+@events.test_start.add_listener
+def setup_worker_dataset(environment, **_kwargs):
+    # happens only once in headless runs, but can happen multiple times in web ui-runs
+    # in a distributed run, the master does not typically need any test data
+    if isinstance(environment.runner, WorkerRunner):
+        # Make the Dataset available for WorkerRunners (non-Worker will have
+        # already setup the dataset via on_locust_init).
+        setup_dataset(environment, skip_download_and_populate=True)
+
+
 @events.test_start.add_listener
 def set_up_iteration_limit(environment: Environment, **kwargs):
     options = environment.parsed_options
@@ -168,11 +194,12 @@ def list():
             datasets.append(json.loads(m.download_as_string()))
         return datasets
 
-    def load(self):
+    def load(self, skip_download: bool = False):
         """
         Load the dataset, populating the 'documents' and 'queries' DataFrames.
         """
-        self._download_dataset_files()
+        if not skip_download:
+            self._download_dataset_files()
 
         # Load all the parquet dataset (made up of one or more parquet files),
         # to use for documents into a pandas dataframe.
diff --git a/tests/integration/test_requests.py b/tests/integration/test_requests.py
index 71971d9..0921c99 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_requests.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_requests.py
@@ -51,13 +51,24 @@ def do_request(index_host, mode, tag, expected_name, timeout=4, extra_args=[]):
                                               extra_args=["--tags", tag] + extra_args)
         # Check that stderr contains the expected output, and no errors.
         assert '"Traceback' not in stderr
-        assert 'All users spawned: {"PineconeUser": 1}' in stderr
         # Check stats output shows expected requests occurred and they
         # succeeded.
-        stats = json.loads(stdout)[0]
-        assert expected_name in stats['name']
-        assert stats['num_requests'] == 1
-        assert stats['num_failures'] == 0
+        # With multiple processes (--processes) we see one JSON array for
+        # each process, so must handle multiple JSON objects.
+        stats = []
+        while stdout:
+            try:
+                stats.append(json.loads(stdout)[0])
+                break
+            except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
+                stdout = stdout[e.pos:]
+        for s in stats:
+            # Ignore empty stat sets (e.g. the master runner emits empty
+            # stats)
+            if s:
+                assert expected_name in s['name']
+                assert s['num_requests'] == 1
+                assert s['num_failures'] == 0
         assert proc.returncode == 0
 
 
@@ -81,7 +92,20 @@ def test_dataset_load(self, index_host):
         # has a non-zero queries set.
         test_dataset = "ANN_MNIST_d784_euclidean"
         self.do_request(index_host, "sdk", 'query', 'Vector (Query only)',
-                        timeout=60, extra_args=["--pinecone-dataset", test_dataset])
+                        timeout=60,
+                        extra_args=["--pinecone-dataset", test_dataset,
+                                    "--pinecone-populate-index", "always"])
+
+
+    def test_dataset_load_multiprocess(self, index_host):
+        # Choosing a small dataset ("only" 60,000 documents) which also
+        # has a non-zero queries set.
+        test_dataset = "ANN_MNIST_d784_euclidean"
+        self.do_request(index_host, "sdk", 'query', 'Vector (Query only)',
+                        timeout=60,
+                        extra_args=["--pinecone-dataset", test_dataset,
+                                    "--pinecone-populate-index", "always",
+                                    "--processes", "1"])
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("mode", ["rest", "sdk", "sdk+grpc"])
@@ -89,6 +113,9 @@ class TestPineconeModes(TestPineconeBase):
     def test_pinecone_query(self, index_host, mode):
         self.do_request(index_host, mode, 'query', 'Vector (Query only)')
 
+    def test_pinecone_query_multiprocess(self, index_host, mode):
+        self.do_request(index_host, mode, 'query', 'Vector (Query only)', timeout=20, extra_args=["--processes=1"])
+
     def test_pinecone_query_meta(self, index_host, mode):
         self.do_request(index_host, mode, 'query_meta', 'Vector + Metadata')