Almost 194 thousand new sole proprietorships were opened by Ukrainians in 8 months of 2024, according to the Unified State Register (USR). 60% of new businesses were started by women. During the same period, just over 120 thousand businesses were closed. More than a third of new businesses close in the first year of operation.
193,192 new sole proprietorships were registered since the beginning of the year. This is even more than before the outbreak of full-scale war, when 186,144 new cases were opened in the same period. After a significant decline at the beginning of the great invasion, the number of new registrations has stabilized and has remained at the same level for the second year in a row.
Most new businesses were opened by entrepreneurs in the capital – 26,303 or 13.6% of the total number of new businesses this year. New businesses are also being actively registered in Dnipropetrovs’k (18,025), Lviv (14,459), Kyiv (14,428), and Kharkiv (12,954) regions.
The most noticeable increase in the number of new fops over the year was in Zaporizhzhia region – by 11%, Kirovohrad region – by 10%, and Chernihiv region – by 9.6%. At the same time, business activity slowed down significantly in the frontline Luhansk (-14.7%) and Ivano-Frankivsk (-8%) regions. Despite the fact that Kharkiv region is among the regions with the largest number of new firms, the number of registrations in this region decreased by 6% compared to the previous year.
One third of new businesses are opened in the trade sector, and the IT sector attracts 7.6% of new entrepreneurs. The top three most popular areas for new business start-ups are personal services (7%). It is worth noting that the top has undergone some changes over the year: in 2023, cafes and restaurants were among the leaders, but this year they were replaced by information services.
The share of women among newly minted businessmen reached a record high of 60%. For comparison, in 2023, this figure was 55.6%, and in the first year of full-scale business, it was 47%.
Currently, the number of new cases is 1.6 times higher than the number of closed ones. Thus, 120,154 fops have been closed in Ukraine since the beginning of the year. Newly established businesses suffered the most: 24.5% of those that were opened last year closed, and 13.7% of those that opened this year. The median period of operation of the fops closed this year is 2 years and 7 months.
The largest number of fops closed in Kyiv – 13% (15,770), Kharkiv – 8% (10,097) and Dnipropetrovs’k – 8% (9,931) regions.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/foponomics-2024-9
This is the highest figure in recent years
More than 43 thousand fops in Ukraine in 2024 were created by women, according to the Unified State Register. This is more than half of the total number of newly created sole proprietorships in the first quarter of this year. Women most often open businesses in retail, personal and information services. Men are more likely to choose computer programming and wholesale trade.
43,554 new sole proprietorships were created by women in the first quarter of 2024. This is more than half – 59% – of the total number of new businesses and a record high in recent years. Men opened 30,496 new businesses in the same period. For comparison, in 2021, the share of women was 51% of the total number of newly created fops.
Most often, women entrepreneurs choose retail trade (68% of women and 32% of men), other personal services (89% of women and 11% of men), and information services (63% of women and 37% of men).
At the same time, men are more likely to choose computer programming (58% of men and 42% of women) and wholesale trade (52% of men and 48% of women).
Almost 31 thousand sole proprietorships ceased operations in the first 4 months of 2024. The most frequently closed businesses are in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions. More than 23% of newly established businesses closed in 2024.
30,904 businesses ceased operations in the first 4 months of 2024. However, the number of new businesses opened is twice as high – more than 74 thousand in the first quarter of this year.
The most frequent closures are in the retail sector – 10,773 (34.9%). Computer programming and wholesale trade are also in the top three, with 10.1% and 6.2% respectively.
Kyiv has the highest number of businesses closing – more than 3,800 or 12.4%. The second place in the anti-rating is occupied by Kharkiv region – almost 2.4 thousand businesses (7.7%). And Dnipropetrovs’k region closes the top, where almost 2.4 thousand businesses, or 7.7%, have also ceased their activities.
Odesa and Lviv regions are also in the anti-top, with 7.7% and 6.8% respectively.
More than 23% of the newly created PEs last year ceased operations in 2024, which is 7.3 thousand businesses.
