A sharp increase in the number of individual entrepreneurs (IEs) who closed their businesses has been registered in Ukraine, the Ukrainian service “Opendatabot“, which specializes in monitoring the country's state registers, reported.
“About 82,000 new sole proprietors opened businesses and almost 120,000 entrepreneurs closed their activities in the first four months of 2025. Thus, for every newly created business, there are 1.5 closed ones. For comparison: last year, more small businesses were opened than closed,“ the service's report says.
It is also noted that in 2025, 44% more private entrepreneurs ceased operations than in the same period in 2024. At the same time, the number of newly opened sole traders was 9% lower than in 2024.
A quarter of all new sole traders are engaged in retail trade, which is 20 thousand 763 entrepreneurs. Another 7,129 sole traders have chosen consulting in the field of information technology and programming. Wholesale trade completes the top three with 6,216 new entrepreneurs. At the same time, women initiate businesses more actively than men: 61% of new sole traders are registered by women.
Among the key problems in their work, entrepreneurs note a decline in consumer demand, a shortage of professional labor, lack of access to cheap financing, and military actions.