Eurochambres Women Entrepreneurs Survey 2025 – Unveiling insights from the women entrepreneurs

Women account for almost half of the labour force in Europe . Yet women remain underrepresented among business owners. Only about one-third of businesses in the EU are started by women, indicating a persistent gender gap in entrepreneurial activity. Research shows that empowering more women to become entrepreneurs could translate in economic growth and foster both employment rates and innovation. However, women face unique challenges in starting and growing businesses, from difficulties accessing finance to balancing family responsibilities.

This report presents a detailed analysis of the latest Eurochambres and UN Women (Europe and Central Asia Regional Office) survey of women entrepreneurs across Europe. Data was collected on demographics, business characteristics, motivations, obstacles, sectoral distribution, and the role of policies and support networks. Evidence-based recommendations have then been proposed to foster and support women-led entrepreneurship in Europe.

The 2025 Survey on female entrepreneurship has been conducted by Eurochambres and UN Women and it follows 3 previous editions of the survey conducted by Eurochambres biennially, since 2019. Some of the questions are consistent with the previous editions, as the scope is to allow confronting the data collected throughout the years, so as to be able to identify recurrent issues or their evolution .

The survey has been kept open from January to March 2025, for circa one month and a half, and 897 replies were collected. Respondent have their business based in 34 countries, both European Union and European (geographically defined) ones. A very few respondents have based their business more internationally (e.g. India and Bhutan) but the number of replies submitted by those is very minimal (20 replies).

The Eurochambres Women Entrepreneurs Survey 2025 ran from January to March 2025, for approximately one and a half months. In total, 897 responses were collected. Respondents have their businesses based in 34 countries, both within the European Union and geographically defined European countries. A few respondents have established their businesses internationally (e.g. India and Bhutan), but the number of responses submitted by them is minimal (20 responses).

Online versions of the survey questionnaire were available in 26 languages to ensure ease of completion, and the survey was mainly based on multiple-choice questions. To make it easier for respondents to respond and ensure high levels of participation, some of the questions were voluntary, as the survey was relatively long. Despite this, most respondents chose to answer all the questions, not just the mandatory ones.

Respondents were also given the opportunity to expand their contributions by allowing them to write additional comments whenever the multiple-choice question included the “other” option. These comments were used to integrate and deepen the survey analysis.

Two of the survey questions (“what should be done to improve the situation of women in male-dominated industries?” and “what do you see as the main obstacles to sustainability investments in your company?”) asked respondents to choose among a list of possible replies the three more pertinent and rank them. The analysis of those replies has been done by assigning a descending value to each respondent’s 3 choices (3 points assigned to the first choice, 2 points assigned to the second choice and 1 point assigned to the third choice) and sum up the aggregated results per answer.

The survey was partially open, for the first time, also to entrepreneurs in general. In fact, people who declared not to identify as a women were still able to complete the part of the survey related to women in the workplace. Out of a total of 897 replies, 17 were of this kind.