In 2024, women have become leaders in the number of new enterprises in Ukraine, registering 153,413 new individual entrepreneurs (IEs). This accounts for 61% of all newly established businesses, demonstrating a significant increase compared to 2021, when this figure was only 51%.
This is reported by Finway
Regions with the Most Active Female Entrepreneurship
The largest number of new female IEs this year was registered in Kyiv — 20,286. Following in number are:
- Dnipropetrovsk region — 15,129
- Kyiv region — 11,846
- Odesa region — 11,647
- Lviv region — 11,274
The highest proportion of women among new entrepreneurs was recorded in Sumy, Poltava, and Odesa regions — each at 63%. It is worth noting that in no region of the country did men exceed women in the number of new businesses.
Main Sectors of Women’s Business
Many women entrepreneurs choose retail: every third newly established female business operates in this sector, accounting for 49,700 registrations. Other popular areas include:
- individual services — 11,100
- wholesale trade — 10,700
- educational services — 10,000
- food establishments — 8,800
“In the individual services segment, women make up 88% of new entrepreneurs. Moreover, 77% of them work in beauty salons, hairdressers, and care studios.”
Women also dominate in the fields of social assistance, education, healthcare, consulting, and food production. This trend indicates the growing role of women in the development of Ukrainian small and medium-sized businesses.