diff --git a/hugolib/hugo_sites.go b/hugolib/hugo_sites.go
index 78ce20b7a..74aa94ede 100644
--- a/hugolib/hugo_sites.go
+++ b/hugolib/hugo_sites.go
@@ -321,9 +321,9 @@ func (h *HugoSites) createMissingPages() error {
 			taxonomyTermsPages := s.findPagesByKind(KindTaxonomyTerm)
 			for _, plural := range taxonomies {
 				tax := s.Taxonomies[plural]
-				foundTaxonomyPage := false
 				foundTaxonomyTermsPage := false
 				for key := range tax {
+					foundTaxonomyPage := false
 					if s.Info.preserveTaxonomyNames {
 						key = s.PathSpec.MakePathSanitized(key)
 					}
diff --git a/hugolib/taxonomy_test.go b/hugolib/taxonomy_test.go
index f5abe2af0..9ef23279d 100644
--- a/hugolib/taxonomy_test.go
+++ b/hugolib/taxonomy_test.go
@@ -14,11 +14,16 @@
 package hugolib
 
 import (
+	"fmt"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"reflect"
 	"testing"
 
+	"github.com/spf13/afero"
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+
 	"github.com/spf13/hugo/deps"
+	"github.com/spf13/hugo/hugofs"
 )
 
 func TestByCountOrderOfTaxonomies(t *testing.T) {
@@ -45,3 +50,80 @@ func TestByCountOrderOfTaxonomies(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatalf("ordered taxonomies do not match [a, b, c].  Got: %s", st)
 	}
 }
+
+// Issue #2992
+func TestTaxonomiesWithAndWithoutContentFile(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Parallel()
+
+	siteConfig := `
+baseURL = "http://example.com/blog"
+
+paginate = 1
+defaultContentLanguage = "en"
+
+[Taxonomies]
+tag = "tags"
+category = "categories"
+other = "others"
+`
+
+	pageTemplate := `---
+title: "%s"
+tags:
+%s
+categories:
+%s
+others:
+%s
+---
+# Doc
+`
+
+	mf := afero.NewMemMapFs()
+
+	writeToFs(t, mf, "config.toml", siteConfig)
+
+	cfg, err := LoadConfig(mf, "", "config.toml")
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	fs := hugofs.NewFrom(mf, cfg)
+	th := testHelper{cfg, fs, t}
+
+	writeSource(t, fs, "layouts/_default/single.html", "Single|{{ .Title }}|{{ .Content }}")
+	writeSource(t, fs, "layouts/_default/list.html", "List|{{ .Title }}|{{ .Content }}")
+	writeSource(t, fs, "layouts/_default/terms.html", "Terms List|{{ .Title }}|{{ .Content }}")
+
+	writeSource(t, fs, "content/p1.md", fmt.Sprintf(pageTemplate, "t1/c1", "- tag1", "- cat1", "- o1"))
+	writeSource(t, fs, "content/p2.md", fmt.Sprintf(pageTemplate, "t2/c1", "- tag2", "- cat1", "- o1"))
+
+	writeNewContentFile(t, fs, "Category Terms", "2017-01-01", "content/categories/_index.md", 10)
+	writeNewContentFile(t, fs, "Tag1 List", "2017-01-01", "content/tags/tag1/_index.md", 10)
+
+	h, err := NewHugoSites(deps.DepsCfg{Fs: fs, Cfg: cfg})
+
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.Len(t, h.Sites, 1)
+
+	err = h.Build(BuildCfg{})
+
+	require.NoError(t, err)
+
+	// So what we have now is:
+	// 1. categories with terms content page, but no content page for the only c1 category
+	// 2. tags with no terms content page, but content page for one of 2 tags (tag1)
+	// 3. the "others" taxonomy with no content pages.
+
+	// 1.
+	th.assertFileContent("public/categories/cat1/index.html", "List", "Cat1")
+	th.assertFileContent("public/categories/index.html", "Terms List", "Category Terms")
+
+	// 2.
+	th.assertFileContent("public/tags/tag2/index.html", "List", "Tag2")
+	th.assertFileContent("public/tags/tag1/index.html", "List", "Tag1")
+	th.assertFileContent("public/tags/index.html", "Terms List", "Tags")
+
+	// 3.
+	th.assertFileContent("public/others/o1/index.html", "List", "O1")
+	th.assertFileContent("public/others/index.html", "Terms List", "Others")
+
+}