Over 900 sole traders have been registered in the Mykolaiv region in the space of six months: how business has changed in the regions

A café in Voznesensk. Illustrative photo: NikVesti

In the first six months of this year, over 900 sole traders were registered in the Mykolaiv region, whilst the Odesa region saw an increase of almost three thousand; the Kherson region, however, was among the three regions where the number of entrepreneurs fell.

This is according to analytical data from OpenDataBot, as reported by NikVesti.

In total, over 141,000 sole traders were registered in Ukraine between January and June 2026, whilst more than 102,000 closed down.

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Analysts note that the number of new registrations has remained virtually unchanged compared with last year, whilst closures have fallen by 36 per cent.

The leading regions in terms of growth in the number of new entrepreneurs are Kyiv (+5,058), Dnipropetrovsk region (+4,284), Lviv region (+4,254), Kyiv region (+3,756) and Odesa region (+2,955).

By contrast, three regions recorded a decline in the number of entrepreneurs. The largest decreases were in Donetsk region (–569), Kherson region (–293) and Luhansk region (–93).

Growth and decline in the number of sole traders. Infographic: OpenDataBot

Small businesses grew most rapidly in the education sector — by almost four thousand. Other leading sectors included retail trade (+3,500), postal and courier services, and real estate transactions (+2,500), as well as wholesale trade (+2,400).

At the same time, the number of sole traders fell in some sectors. The sharpest decline was in the computer repair sector, with a drop of 365 sole traders. There was also a slight reduction in security services, telecommunications, waste management and woodworking.

It should be noted that, as of mid-May this year, nearly 22,000 foreigners had registered sole traders in Ukraine. In the Mykolaiv region, 328 foreigners started businesses; in the Odesa region, over 3,000; and in the Kherson region, 224 entrepreneurs.