This country profile benchmarks recent trends in self-employment and entrepreneurship for women, youth, seniors, immigrants and people with disabilities in Poland relative to the average for the European Union. It also describes recent policy actions and current issues related to inclusive entrepreneurship.
The Missing Entrepreneurs 2023
Policies for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment
Many entrepreneurship metrics suggest that the conditions for business creation are similar to the European Union (EU) average. This includes “average” business entry and exit rates (8% in Poland vs. EU median of 7%). However, the proportion of people starting and managing new businesses (i.e. TEA rate) was below average over the period 2018-22. Men and women are about equally as likely to start and manage a new business – nearly 4% of men and 3% of women – but both shares were below the EU average (8% for men and 6% for women). Young people (18-30 years old) were the most active in starting and managing new businesses (4%), but this share was also below the EU average (9%) over this period. There would be an additional 335 000 early-stage entrepreneurs if everyone was as active in business creation as 30-49 year old men. About two-thirds of these “missing” entrepreneurs would be women and 70% would be over 50 years old.
Self-employment rates in Poland are above the EU average and have been steady over the past decade. The share of working women who are self-employed (about 13%) has also changed little over the past ten years. However, the share of youth (20-29 years old) has increased slightly and the share of seniors (50‑64 years old) has increased.
Some new initiatives to support women entrepreneurs have been launched in recent years, of which many are driven by non-government actors. For example, the Women in Tech Association organised “Shesnnovation Academy” (2020-22) which was the first Polish incubation programme for start-ups in STEM fields (i.e. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) start-ups created by women. It offered intensive training on business skills, individual mentoring and expert consultations. It was targeted at enterprising female students, Ph.D. students, and graduates of technical and science faculties.
Several new initiatives have been launched to support the integration of Ukrainian refugees into society and the labour market. Some of these new initiatives focus on supporting business creation and self-employment, offering training and coaching in English and Ukrainian. The government has also updated many of the relevant websites such as biznes.gov.pl to offer tailored information on how to set up a business and access support services in Ukrainian.
Note: In Panel a, the data for the EU median for SME lending excludes the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Romania. The EU median for the entrepreneurship skills indicator excludes: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Malta. In Panels b-d, the data for the EU average refers to a population-weighted average and excludes Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Malta. Please see Chapter 10 for detailed notes on the figures.
Source: (Eurostat, 2023; GEM, 2023; OECD, 2023). Please see Chapter 10 for full citations.