An analysis of Russian Federal Tax Service data reveals that half of all individual entrepreneurs (IP) remain active for two and a half to three years. After five years, about one-third of businesses survive, and after ten years, less than one-fifth remain active.
The study utilized two primary datasets: the monthly '1-IP' registration report and the Unified Register of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME). The SME registry archive, as of October 10, 2026, totaled approximately 2.25 GB. Researchers processed a sample of 190,946 individual entrepreneurs to estimate survival rates.
Data indicates that in 2025, 748,889 individual entrepreneurs ceased operations. Of these, 88% (658,409) closed voluntarily, 18,403 due to death, 3,068 due to bankruptcy, and 66,674 were excluded by the tax authority as inactive. Historically, the tax service has excluded 851,393 inactive entrepreneurs.
Discrepancies exist between the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs (EGRIP) and the SME registry. As of October 2026, EGRIP listed 4,994,246 active entrepreneurs, while the SME registry contained 4,803,899. The difference of approximately 190,000 represents entities that exist on paper but have not submitted the reporting required for the SME registry.