MAKHACHKALA, June 15 – RIA Dagestan. Among individual entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35, trade dominates as the most attractive sector, capturing 40.5% of the total, according to Sber2B Analytics. Also in demand are transportation and storage (10.7%), professional, scientific, and technical work (8.2%), construction (7.3%) and hotels and restaurants (5.5%). The data was presented by Anatoly Popov, Deputy Chairman of Sberbank's Management Board, at the Youth Day event of the 29th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Individual entrepreneurs under 35 represent a major component of Russia's small business sector. The largest proportion operates in information technology (26.2%), with culture, sports and leisure/entertainment close behind (26%). Education holds 25.2%, and the hotel and restaurant industry accounts for 20.1%. The biggest expansion of young entrepreneurship occurred in professional, scientific and technical activities, which grew by 30.4%, followed by information and communication (+29.7%), culture, sports, and leisure (+15.2%), healthcare (+14.9%), and the hospitality and restaurant sector (+13.8%).
Geographically, the highest share of young individual entrepreneurs is observed in the North Caucasus, with Chechnya at 31.2%, Ingushetia at 25.4% and Dagestan at 24.5%. These are followed by Tuva (21.2%), Moscow (20.4%), Karachay-Cherkessia (19.7%), North Ossetia–Alania (19.6%), St. Petersburg (18.3%), and Tatarstan (18%). Men account for the majority of young business owners, at 57.6%.
The Sber2B Analytics study draws on aggregated and depersonalized data from April 2026 compared to April 2025.