diff --git a/src/litdata/utilities/env.py b/src/litdata/utilities/env.py
index 7d90d4de..28db9518 100644
--- a/src/litdata/utilities/env.py
+++ b/src/litdata/utilities/env.py
@@ -57,14 +57,14 @@ def detect(cls) -> "_DistributedEnv":
             global_rank = 0
             num_nodes = 1
 
-        if os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"] is not None:
-            world_size = os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"]
+        if os.environ.get("WORLD_SIZE") is not None:
+            world_size = int(os.environ.get("WORLD_SIZE"))
 
-        if os.environ["GLOBAL_RANK"] is not None:
-            global_rank = os.environ["GLOBAL_RANK"]
+        if os.environ.get("GLOBAL_RANK") is not None:
+            global_rank = int(os.environ.get("GLOBAL_RANK"))
 
-        if os.environ["NNODES"] is not None:
-            num_nodes = os.environ["NNODES"]
+        if os.environ.get("NNODES") is not None:
+            num_nodes = int(os.environ.get("NNODES"))
 
         if world_size in (None, -1, 0):
             world_size = 1