diff --git a/openmc/mesh.py b/openmc/mesh.py
index 1b37a42728..8ac4b15946 100644
--- a/openmc/mesh.py
+++ b/openmc/mesh.py
@@ -216,7 +216,7 @@ class StructuredMesh(MeshBase):
 
         Raises
         ------
-        RuntimeError
+        ValueError
             When the size of a dataset doesn't match the number of mesh cells
 
         Returns
@@ -236,10 +236,10 @@ class StructuredMesh(MeshBase):
             )
             if isinstance(dataset, np.ndarray):
                 if not dataset.size == self.num_mesh_cells:
-                    raise RuntimeError(errmsg)
+                    raise ValueError(errmsg)
             else:
                 if len(dataset) == self.num_mesh_cells:
-                    raise RuntimeError(errmsg)
+                    raise ValueError(errmsg)
             cv.check_type('label', label, str)
 
         vtk_grid = vtk.vtkStructuredGrid()
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/test_mesh_to_vtk.py b/tests/unit_tests/test_mesh_to_vtk.py
index 2c23a52985..d7d5907a22 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/test_mesh_to_vtk.py
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/test_mesh_to_vtk.py
@@ -80,5 +80,5 @@ def test_write_data_to_vtk_size_mismatch(mesh):
         f"The size of the dataset 'label' \({len(data)}\) should be equal to "
         f"the number of mesh cells \({mesh.num_mesh_cells}\)"
     )
-    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match=expected_error_msg):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=expected_error_msg):
         mesh.write_data_to_vtk(filename="out.vtk", datasets={"label": data})