In Ukraine, more IT professionals are closing their fops than opening new ones: -7.5 thousand entrepreneurs since the beginning of the year. In general, IT fops are among the longest-lived: the median life span of those who worked in computer programming and closed this year is almost 4 years. The oldest entrepreneur among those who closed this year worked for 34 years.
18,605 new sole proprietorships in computer programming appeared this year, which means that the number of newcomers to the field remained almost unchanged. Instead, existing businesses are closing more and more actively: 26,158 IT entrepreneurs have closed their operations. Overall, losses in the industry tripled over the year: 7,553 FOPs in just ten months of this year.
Traditionally, the largest number of new IT fops was registered in Kyiv (3737), Lviv (2015), Dnipro (1740), Kharkiv (1557), and Kyiv regions (1338). At the same time, only two regions maintained a positive balance – when more opened than closed -: Volyn (+19 fops) and Ternopil (+12).
Men predominate among new IT entrepreneurs – 57% of registrations, while women account for 43%. And in no region does the number of women entrepreneurs exceed the number of men – this is currently an atypical situation for Ukrainian businesses, which are mostly started by women.
The median life of an IT fop that closed in 2025 is 4 years. One in six IT fops ceases operations within the first year, and another third operate for one to four years. The oldest entrepreneur to close this year had been operating since 1991.
However, the closure of fops does not necessarily indicate a crisis in the industry, but rather a change in the way IT professionals are employed. Thus, according to DOU, 57% of IT professionals work as freelancers this year. Comparatively, a year ago, the number was 70%, and in 2022 it was 87%.
At the same time, according to Gini, the number of vacancies in the IT sector has only increased over the past year. Thus, while 72,396 job offers for IT professionals were posted in 10 months of last year, the same period this year has already seen an 11% increase in such offers: 80 297.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/it-foponomics-2025
