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Наталя ХандусенкоWork
21 May 2026, 13:01
2026-05-21
The biggest decline since 2016: the Ukrainian IT sector lost over 56,000 sole proprietors in a year, and almost four times fewer new ones appeared
Since 2016, the Ukrainian IT sector has been growing continuously, reaching its peak in January 2024, when there were 275,279 active sole proprietors in the country. However, later the market recorded its first decline, which continues to this day. As of February 2026, the number of IT entrepreneurs had decreased to 205,939, although a year ago there were 263,093.
Since 2016, the Ukrainian IT sector has been growing continuously, reaching its peak in January 2024, when there were 275,279 active sole proprietors in the country. However, later the market recorded its first decline, which continues to this day. As of February 2026, the number of IT entrepreneurs had decreased to 205,939, although a year ago there were 263,093.
The total number of IT-entrepreneurs in Ukraine decreased by 21% over the year, which is more than 56,000 entrepreneurs, DOU reports . The decline was recorded in all profile KVEDs. The number of IT-entrepreneurs decreased most significantly in the areas of "Data processing" (by 26.5%, or 9,327 people) and "Web portals" (by 26%, or 450 people).
Source: DOU
The reduction in the number of IT-entrepreneurs over the year was recorded in all regions of Ukraine. The market sank most rapidly in the frontline zones - in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the outflow of entrepreneurs exceeded a third. The trend was not bypassed by the country's key IT hubs. In particular, Kyiv lost over 13,000 individual entrepreneurs (-20%), Kharkiv region - almost 7,000 (-22.2%), Lviv region - over 5,000 (-19.5%), and Dnipropetrovsk region - more than 3 thousand (-17.9%).
The gender balance in Ukrainian IT currently stands at 71.3% men versus 28.7% women (i.e., approximately one in three entrepreneurs is a woman). This indicator shows a decline: after six years of steady growth — from 24.9% in 2019 to a peak of 31% in 2025 — the share of women has fallen again to 29%.
The highest concentration of women entrepreneurs is recorded in the areas of "Data Processing" (where there is almost equality with men), "Consulting" and "Web Portals". Geographically, the leaders in terms of the share of women are Lviv, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk regions and the capital. The least women are represented in the IT sector of Crimea, as well as Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions.
The pace of registration of new IT businesses has also slowed down. Over the past 12 months (from February 2025 to February 2026), only 14,500 sole proprietorships were opened, which is almost half the figure of the previous year, which reached 26.7 thousand. In the structure of new registrations, men outnumbered women — 7,862 against 6,672 created businesses.
Aittsev residents are abandoning the status of individual entrepreneurs in favor of other work formats. According to DOU, in just one year (from December 2024 to December 2025), the share of individual entrepreneurs among the surveyed specialists decreased from 62% to 53%.
Where are developers moving? Mainly to gig contracts in Diya.City - the number of such employees has increased from 14% to 20%. The share of those paying taxes abroad has also increased slightly. The wave of liquidations of individual entrepreneurs began in early 2025: in the first three months alone, more than 16,600 entrepreneurs closed. The main reasons then were changes in taxation rules (mandatory SSC) and the transition to new corporate standards.
In 2025, IT-individual entrepreneurs sent almost UAH 20 billion to the budget: what does the calculation of taxes for one individual entrepreneur look like by industry?
"The illusion of collapse." Analysts explained why 135.4% more IT sole proprietorships closed in the first quarter of 2025 than in the same period last year. What else is interesting in the YouControl study
Професії у геймдеві. Хто такий левел-дизайнер і як ним стати?
Ми продовжуємо нашу рубрику, присвячену професіям у геймдеві. Тема нового матеріалу в ній — левел-дизайн. Його вважають підвидом геймдизайну, але все-таки практично кожна студія хоче окрему людину на позицію левел-дизайнера. Адже у цій спеціальності вистачає своїх нюансів та особливостей.
Розібратися з ними всіма нам допоміг досвідчений левел-дизайнер зі студії Fractured Byte Дмитро Нестеренко. Також він веде свій блог Game Designer Notes про геймдизайн в цілому, в якому розбирає багато цікавих нюансів розробки ігор.
