The number of women entrepreneurs in Russia has grown to 1.8 million.

In Russia, the number of women registered as individual entrepreneurs has reached 1.8 million people. This increased the share of women's businesses to 41.4% of the total number of entrepreneurs. A year earlier, this figure was 41.2%. This was reported to Izvestia on March 7 by the SME Corporation.

It was particularly noteworthy that in 2024, for the first time, the proportion of women among recipients of state support measures exceeded the proportion of men, amounting to 50.3%.

"The growth of women's entrepreneurship in 2024 was characterized by an increase in the proportion of those who took advantage of government support measures. Previously, male entrepreneurs were more likely to use support tools to launch and develop their businesses. Last year, for the first time, the proportion of women was higher. Almost every fourth female entrepreneur has registered her business over the past year," said Alexander Isaevich, CEO of SME Corporation.

In 34 regions of the country, the proportion of female sole proprietors exceeded the national average. The leaders in the share of women's entrepreneurship were the Luhansk People's Republic (57.8%), the Donetsk People's Republic (55.5%), the Republic of Tyva (55.1%), the Zaporizhia region (52.1%) and the Republic of Buryatia (50.0%). In absolute terms, the largest number of female entrepreneurs are registered in Moscow - 194,000 people. The capital also leads in terms of the proportion of women among sole proprietors in the Central Federal District (43.3%).

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Women most often open businesses in the field of social services (83.5%), personal services such as beauty salons and hairdressers (77.4%), clothing manufacturing (71.7%), education (69.9%) and tourism (17.2%). Such areas of self-employment as manicure and pedicure (99%), cosmetology (97%), babysitter services (97%), hairdressing (92%) and tailoring (91%) are almost completely occupied by women. The lowest proportion of women is observed among car mechanics (3%), plumbers (4%) and household appliance repair specialists (4%).

The average age of a business founded by women is five years and 10 months, which is slightly less than that of men (six years and three months). Among women, 2% are under the age of 21, 24% are between the ages of 21 and 35, 65% are between the ages of 35 and 60, and 9% are over the age of 60. Almost half (49%) of the self—employed are women under the age of 35.

At the end of December last year, it was reported that in Russia the number of established SMEs exceeded 1 million, of which 814 thousand were created in the form of individual entrepreneurship. This was stated in an analytical note by the autonomous non-profit organization National Priorities.