In Ukraine, an ordinary individual entrepreneur (individual entrepreneur) works on average for only 2 years and 4 months, and many small businesses do not even live to see their first anniversary. Unexpectedly, the most vulnerable area was trade, which accounts for almost half of all business closures.

Opendatabot analysts report this. According to the Unified State Register, in just 11 months of 2025, more than 250 thousand private entrepreneurs ceased their activities.

On average, an ordinary individual entrepreneur in Ukraine works for 2 years and 4 months, but this figure differs significantly depending on the field of activity and region. The largest surge in business closures was recorded in January - 59,723 closures at once. This sharp figure is explained by a one and a half month pause in the work of state registers at the end of 2024, after which all accumulated decisions were entered simultaneously. However, even taking into account the technical factor, the general trend remains alarming, because small businesses are disappearing en masse from the economic map of the country. The reasons are different, from falling purchasing power and rising costs to mobilization processes, relocation and changes in tax conditions.

Most of the entrepreneurs who stopped working in 2025 were registered in Kyiv. Every eighth closed individual entrepreneur worked in the capital (32,469 entrepreneurs). This indicator is explained not only by the concentration of business, but also by high competition and the cost of doing business..

In second place is the Dnipropetrovsk region, where 22,645 individual entrepreneurs ceased their activities. This is followed by Kharkiv region (20,481), Odessa region (18,714) and Lviv region (16,521). In all these regions, small businesses face additional risks (proximity to the front, logistics and personnel problems).

The most vulnerable area in 2025 is trade. Retail trade accounts for a third of all closures, namely 77,705 individual entrepreneurs. On average, such businesses exist for less than three years.. Another 16,909 entrepreneurs ceased their activities in the wholesale trade sector, where the average “life expectancy” of an individual entrepreneur barely exceeds one year. In general, almost half of all closures in 2025 occurred in the retail niche. By a wide margin, the second most number of terminations was the IT sector. In 2025, 28,668 IT specialists closed their doors, this is every ninth entrepreneur who ceased operations. At the same time, IT remains one of the most viable areas of small business.

Individual entrepreneurs in IT work on average 3 years and 11 months, which is almost twice as long as the national average. Some of the closures in this area are not due to the failure of the business, but to a change in the form of work, travel abroad or transition to hired employment.

The most stable private entrepreneurs in Ukraine were those working in the field of warehousing. On average, such entrepreneurs have been operating for more than 6 years, this is an absolute record among small businesses..

Individual entrepreneurs engaged in real estate transactions have been working for almost six years (5 years and 11 months). The three most durable also include businesses repairing equipment, including household appliances - their average lifespan is 5 years and 9 months. All these areas are united by stable demand and relatively low dependence on impulsive consumption.

The anti-record for the duration of work belongs to sole proprietor couriers.

On average, entrepreneurs in this field work for only 6 months. Such statistics indicate the temporary nature of employment and the use of private entrepreneurs as a formal tool for working in delivery services.

Individual entrepreneurs in the field of administrative and auxiliary office activities do not stay afloat for long, about 9 months. On average, entrepreneurs in wholesale trade and education work for just over a year, which also indicates the difficulty of scaling and instability of income.