Ukrainian citizens are increasingly deciding to open business operations in Poland. In the whole of 2023, they registered more than 28.6 thousand businesses, according to data from the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity analysed by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).

In 2023, almost twice as many newly registered sole proprietorships (JDG) were established by Ukrainian citizens comparing to 2022, when 15.9 thousand such businesses were registered, according to data compiled by PIE. Since the beginning of 2022, Ukrainians have created and still run 44.5 thousand sole proprietorships in Poland.

Such a result also means that already almost every tenth (9.4 % of the total) of the smallest companies established in Poland in the previous year is a company registered by a Ukrainian citizen. By comparison, before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of our eastern neighbour, this percentage was less than 1 %.

As a result, since the beginning of 2022, Ukrainians have created and run 44,500 sole proprietorships in Poland, which, as PIE notes, is an alternative to full-time employment for many of them. The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) database lists about 731 thousand Ukrainian citizens employed on the basis of various forms of work provision, but they are still mostly employed in Polish companies for lower-paid simple jobs. 

Starting a JDG allows to use the qualifications or to continue the activity conducted before having to leave Ukraine. The Polish Economic Institute also analysed the structure of industries operated by Ukrainian citizens within their new companies registered in Poland. They are mainly: construction (24 %), information and communication (18 %) and other service activities (14 %), which is a result almost identical to that recorded in the first three quarters of 2022.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński