The number of foreigners engaged in non-agricultural entrepreneurial activity is growing in Poland. Almost half of them have Ukrainian citizenship.
The Polish Social Insurance Office ZUS, where company contributions are deducted, counted the number of foreigners running their own business in the country. It is noted that more than 46,000 foreigners are already engaged in business activities not related to agriculture. Among them, almost 47% indicated Ukrainian citizenship.
Entrepreneurs with the citizenship of at least 120 countries declare their business in ZUS. The most active are from Ukraine. 21,600 ZUS contributors indicated Ukrainian citizenship. For several months now, the self-employed category has been growing the most among this group. A year ago, Ukrainians made up a third of foreign entrepreneurs.
The second largest group that takes the initiative in private entrepreneurship are Belarusians – 9,034 individuals, and entrepreneurs with Vietnamese citizenship are in third place (1,154 applications). There are slightly fewer entrepreneurs with Russian citizenship (1,030) and German (918).
In 2022, Ukrainians created almost 16,000 sole proprietorships in Poland. Almost the same amount was added in the first six months of 2023. Most of them are in the field of construction, information and communication, services (85% are hairdressing and cosmetology services).
It is noted that since the beginning of 2023, the creation of more than 2,000 Ukrainian FOPs has been observed in Poland. Ukrainian companies account for 67% of all new foreign businesses and 10% of all firms created during the first half of 2023.
