The 6 countries with the largest gipsy populations in the world are probably an easy guess for any traveller who has observed the social structure wherever they roam. For people with a lesser reach out to the faces you may see on the streets of countries you never knew existed, gipsies might be fairytale material. However, these people are a very real, absolutely not in any way a magical group of their own. If you’ve ever wondered where you can find the largest groups of them, then don’t look at the 10 most ethnically diverse countries in the world but instead read on. However, in theory you shouldn’t look anywhere for them. If you don’t get the last sentence, let us take a look at the term “gipsy”.
Gipsy or gypsy are both words that the English use to this date to call a person who belongs to the Romani people. The Romani, as they call themselves, are a sort of nomadic ethnicity (more so before than nowadays). They are considered to be of Northern Indian origin but today live mainly around the warmer parts of Europe and the Americas. Because of their strictly nomadic origins, gipsies do not really have any recorded history of their own or much of their older folklore and culture surviving to this date. Everything they have ever created was only handed down through the family or tribe. There are legends such as the one which tells that Roma people were initially a group of musicians called by an Indian king to learn to live like peasants so they could play music for the poor. However, their failure angered the ruler and they were cast out of their homeland to roam the world. The Romani language gives the story some credibility because its characteristics match several Indian languages and even share certain basic words with them. Furthermore, the gipsy people are known to be very keen on music and dance and have been portrayed so throughout history.
However, their way of life does not really match with modern society’s image of how a person should behave. They have been known throughout their existence for making their living through crimes such as theft and scamming. A lot of them do not wish or have the ability to work regular jobs so they live in poverty and furthermore worsen their crime problems. The majority of Romani people fit this description but there is also a big part who are living normal, educated lives like everyone else, which is why this stereotype is not encouraged. Rich or poor, criminals or honest people who are trying to live their lives, the gipsy people are there and as human as any of us. Let’s take a look at the countries with the highest gipsy portions of their populations.
6. Russia
Russian gypsies (known as the “Ruska Roma”) have been known throughout their existence as a demographic as musicians, dancers, actors and circus entertainers. Their musical culture is held in a relatively high regard because of some very talented artists in the past. However, the typical social problems persist.
5. Bulgaria
Bulgaria has been having issues with the concerningly quickly growing gipsy minority there. Concerningly growing because the Romani people there marry young, have as many children as possible and take advantage of the legal system which allows them to receive more welfare for every next child. However, a very small part of these children make their way into society with the majority of them ending up in crime and following their parents’ way of life.
4. Spain
Everyone who’s read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame or seen the Disney film knows about Spanish gypsies’ portrayal in popular culture. Called “Gitanos” there, Spanish gypsies probably number more than a million nowadays. In history as well as nowadays, there are numerous famous Gitano musicians and entertainers of all sorts in Spain. However, their crime issues persists with female gypsies being as much as a quarter of the female prison population in Spain.
3. Hungary
Hungary’s gypsies have been an inspiration for many worldwide famous people of the arts and have been known as skilled people of the arts themselves. However, they are currently facing problems with their integrations in society. The main problem for Romani people there is that they, through not willing or not being able to, seldom complete even their basic education and face almost no employment opportunities. This goes on to evolve into a vicious circle of poverty and crime.
2. Turkey
Romani people have been a part of Turkey’s ethnical diversity even before the country was called so. Even in one of the popular Assassin’s Creed games you can see a group of gypsies in Ottoman Constantinople. In Turkey, Gypsies are not considered a minority not due to their number but because they adhere to Islam, although estimates show that their numbers are enough for this to happen without relation to their religion.
1. Romania
Romania is known as the European gipsy “hotspot”. The country takes the first place in the list of the 6 countries with the largest gipsy populations in the world. Gipsies there are the most economically and educationally disadvantaged minority with illiteracy levels that make their counting in censuses hard.
