Ukrainians establish 10% of new sole proprietorship businesses in Poland this year

In the first half of this year, around 14,000 Ukrainians created sole proprietorship businesses in Poland, almost as many as in the whole of 2022. It means that roughly one in ten such businesses registered in Poland this year have been Ukrainian, notes the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) in a new report.

The figures represent a further acceleration of the rapid rise in such businesses being established by Ukrainians after the mass arrival of refugees in Poland following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In April last year, the Polish government changed the law to allow Ukrainian nationals to run businesses on the same terms as Poles.

“Since the beginning of 2023, we have seen more than 2,000 Ukrainians register as self-employed every month,” says Katarzyna Dębkowska, head of the economic foresight team at the PIE.

“Ukrainian businesses in the first half of 2023 accounted for 67% of all new foreign economic activities and 10% of all self-employed people registered during this period,” she adds.

“The pace of establishing Ukrainian economic activities in Poland is not slowing down,” says Dębowska. “This phenomenon cannot be described as a post-war spurt. Companies are still being set up, they do business in Poland, and we do not see mass closures of those businesses.”

Between the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the end of June 2023, Ukrainians registered a total of 29,400 sole proprietorship businesses in Poland. The largest proportions are in construction (23%), information and communication (18%), and other services (14%), of which 85% are hairdressing and beauty services.

Most self-employed Ukrainians (24%) have registered their business in Mazovia province, home to the Polish capital Warsaw. The other provinces in which Ukrainian businesses were most often established were Lower Silesia (15%), Małopolska (13%) and Pomerania (11%).

In 2022 and the first half of 2023, 933 companies were closed, representing only around 3% of all Ukrainian businesses established during that time.

“For war refugees, it [sole proprietorship] is often a better solution than a salaried job, a way to support themselves and their families, and a job in line with their qualifications,” notes Dębowska.

Estimates suggest that there are around two million Ukrainians in Poland, including both refugees (of whom there are around a million) and economic migrants.

Many of the refugees who have come to Poland since February last year are well-qualified people with higher education, whereas before the war migrants often came from Ukraine for seasonal jobs in sectors such as agriculture or construction.

Main image credit: Kateryna Babaieva / Pexels 

Alicja Ptak

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