In 2022, women established more than 93,000 business activities in Poland. This is 37 % of all businesses in this form created in Poland at that time. A year earlier, this percentage was 32 %.  

Small and medium-sized enterprises are responsible for about half of the Polish Gross Domestic Product. According to data from the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), the key role in this group is played by the smallest enterprises, whose share in this statistic is about 30 %. If we look at the numbers, it turns out that out of about 5 million companies operating in Poland, more than 4.8 million were micro businesses, and 3.5 million of them were run as sole proprietorships.

The EU and Polish average share of women among self-employed persons in 2021 was 32 %, according to Eurostat data. In 2022, the economic activity of Polish women increased noticeably, as can be seen in an analysis of data from the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity (CEIDG) conducted for Business Insider Polska by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE).

In 2022, Polish women established 93.3 thousand sole proprietorships, accounting for 37 % of all businesses established last year. „The largest number of businesses (around 9 thousand each) were opened by women in September and October”, says Katarzyna Dębkowska, head of the economic foresight team at PIE.

The data analysed by PIE shows that women most often set up trading companies (20 %) and businesses defined by the code ‘professional, scientific and technical activities’ (15 %). Under this name, female entrepreneurs are mainly engaged in business and management consultancy, accounting and tax consultancy, legal activities, or specialist design activities, reports Business Insider.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński