Pro-entrepreneurial mindsets of citizens – Poland and the EU – the attempt of evaluation and comparison

The development of entrepreneurship provides substantial benefits, both economically and socially all over the world. The necessity to stimulate entrepreneurship in the economy is of a crucial importance due to the creation of new working places, value-added and the establishment of innovations. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the entrepreneurial attitude of the EU citizens in the years 2007-2012. In particular, it puts forward a comparative analysis – Poland vs. other member states. In this paper the outcomes of empirical research undertaken by the European Commission’s Directorate-General “Enterprise and Industry” were presented. This institution has been studying the development of entrepreneurship in the EU Member States and other selected countries for over a decade starting from the year 2000 relying on the opinions collected through self-constructed questionnaires. In the analytical reports entrepreneurial mindsets of citizens are discussed. In the statistical analysis various forms of indices were applied in order to show how variables were changing throughout the given period. Given the theoretical and empirical research, it can be concluded that EU citizens are less attracted by starting their own business. According to the European Commission research, as well as the national statistics of Poland, the number of enterprises per ten thousand inhabitants is decreasing.