Almost 14,000 Ukrainian businesses created in Poland in the first nine months of 2022

Almost 14,000 businesses were created by Ukrainians in Poland in the first nine months of last year, amid a wave of refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion, shows a new report by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).

The majority of those businesses were made up of individuals registering as self-employed. However, there was also a significant growth in the number of companies in Poland with Ukrainian capital.

From January to September 2022, around 13,800 businesses were registered by Ukrainians, found PIE. Of those, 10,200 were self-employed sole traders.

The largest increase came in April, when their number tripled after the government changed the law to allow Ukrainian nationals to run businesses on the same terms as Poles. By September, the number of Ukrainians registered as self employed was almost twelve times higher than in February.

“In January, self-employed Ukrainians accounted for less than 1% of all newly registered businesses, and in September they accounted already for 8.5%,” notes PIE.

Total number of self-employed Ukrainians registered in January-September 2022 (source: PIE based on Central Registration And Information On Business (CEIDG) data)

According to PIE, among all registered self-employed Ukrainians, the largest proportions work in construction (24%), information and communication (16%) and other service activities (14%).

Among those who registered in the first nine months of 2020, women represented 41%. Almost one in three businesses founded by Ukrainian women operates in services. Among those founded by men, almost two out of five are in the construction industry.

The structure by gender indicates that the Ukrainians registering as self-employment in 2022 are not only refugees – 91% of whom were women and children – but also individuals previosuly in the country. Before the war, Ukrainians were already Poland’s largest immigrant group.

A survey conducted by PIE found that 66% of the Ukrainian entrepreneurs that had launched their businesses in Poland after the Russian invasion plan to remain in Poland regardless of the situation in their home country.

“Indeed, most [Ukrainian entrepreneurs] consider Poland as a step towards entering the EU market and expanding markets for their products,” said Tetiana Chuzha of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PIAH), quoted in the report.

Meanwhile, PIE also found that the number of companies with Ukrainian capital registering in Poland in the first three quarters of 2022 – 3,600 – was 12.5% higher than in the same period a year earlier.

“From January to September 2022, as many as 45% of newly registered companies with foreign capital were entities with Ukrainian capital,” wrote PIE. “According to available data, 2022 could be a record year in terms of the number of registered companies with Ukrainian capital.”

Monthly registrations of new companies with Ukrainian capital from January to September 2022 and yearly change (source: PIE based on Central Business Information Centre (COIG) data).

By the end of September, there were a total of 24,100 companies with Ukrainian capital in Poland, accounting for as many as 25% of all companies with foreign capital.

Companies with Ukrainian capital operate primarily in trade (22%), construction (19%) and transport and storage and warehouse management (14%).

Estimates suggest that there are around two million Ukrainians in Poland, around half of them refugees. A study by the National Bank of Poland found that most of the adult refugees are well qualified and around half declared they want to work.

Main photo credit: Marcin Jozwiak/Unsplash

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.