Thursday, 10 September 2026
Poland had almost 2.9 million active enterprises in the second quarter of 2026, with the number increasing by 1.6% compared with the same period last year. The expansion was concentrated among the country’s smallest businesses, while the number of companies in every larger employment category declined.
Statistics Poland recorded 2,896,481 active enterprises during Q2, compared with 2,849,617 a year earlier. Micro-enterprises employing no more than nine people numbered 2.78 million and represented 96% of the entire business population. Their number increased by 1.8% year-on-year.
The picture was different among larger companies. Poland had 95,785 businesses employing between 10 and 49 people, 17,245 with between 50 and 249 employees and 4,170 businesses employing at least 250 people. Compared with Q2 2025, these groups declined by 1.1%, 1.0% and 0.3%, respectively.
The figures indicate that Poland’s expanding enterprise base is becoming increasingly concentrated among very small businesses. For the commercial property market, this structure is relevant because smaller companies generally create different space requirements from large corporate occupiers, potentially supporting demand for smaller offices, flexible workplaces, urban business units and compact warehouse facilities. The Statistics Poland data, however, do not measure property occupation and therefore cannot establish how much additional commercial space these businesses are taking.
Trade and vehicle-related businesses remained the country’s largest group, representing 16.5% of active enterprises, followed closely by construction at 15.1%. Professional, scientific and technical businesses accounted for another 13.9%.
Construction alone comprised 438,358 active enterprises, illustrating the scale and fragmentation of the industry. Of these, 423,502 employed no more than nine people. There were 13,563 construction companies with between 10 and 49 employees, 1,167 medium-sized businesses and only 126 enterprises employing at least 250 people.
Manufacturing showed a very different structure. Although there were 235,557 manufacturing enterprises overall, the sector accounted for 42.3% of Poland’s large enterprises and 34.5% of medium-sized businesses, making manufacturing particularly important within the country’s larger corporate population.
Other sectors closely connected with property demand also represented substantial business populations. Transportation and storage accounted for 168,224 active enterprises, while 77,888 businesses were classified under real estate activities. Information and communication comprised 241,724 enterprises.
Administrative and support services recorded the fastest year-on-year increase in the number of active businesses, rising 10.3%. The data do not establish whether that increase has translated into additional office or other commercial property demand, but the expansion provides another indication of changes taking place within Poland’s service economy.
Business activity remains heavily concentrated in Poland’s strongest economic regions. Mazowieckie contained 20.2% of all active enterprises, followed by Wielkopolskie with 10.3%, Śląskie with 10.2% and Małopolskie with 10.0%. Together, the four regions accounted for just over half of the national business population.
Mazowieckie also recorded the strongest increase among the major regions, with the number of enterprises rising 2.5% year-on-year. Dolnośląskie increased 2.4% and Małopolskie 2.1%. Warmińsko-Mazurskie was the only region where Statistics Poland reported a decline, with the number falling 0.2%.
The concentration becomes even clearer when business numbers are adjusted for population. Mazowieckie had 106.1 active enterprises per 1,000 inhabitants, followed by Wielkopolskie with 85.7, Pomorskie with 85.4, Małopolskie with 84.8 and Dolnośląskie with 83.2. The national figure shown in the report was 77.3 enterprises per 1,000 residents.
The Warsaw metropolitan area stands out particularly strongly. Among counties that are not cities with county status, Piaseczyński recorded 127.7 enterprises per 1,000 residents, followed by Pruszkowski at 116.3 and Warszawski Zachodni at 114.4. All three form part of the wider Warsaw economic area, illustrating the depth of business activity beyond the capital’s administrative boundaries.
Poland’s Q2 figures therefore show continued expansion in the overall number of businesses, but they also reveal an increasingly important distinction within that growth. The country is creating more active enterprises primarily because the micro-business population is expanding, while the numbers of small, medium-sized and large companies have edged lower.
For commercial real estate, that distinction matters. An economy dominated increasingly by small operators may generate demand differently from one expanding through large employers, particularly in metropolitan areas where smaller offices, flexible premises, urban logistics facilities and mixed commercial formats can accommodate businesses without the scale required for conventional corporate properties. Whether the continued expansion of Poland’s micro-enterprise economy produces measurable changes in property demand will depend on how many of these businesses grow, employ additional staff and move into dedicated commercial premises.
