Romani people Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Romani people
Total population
Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted by the 1971 World Romani Congress
2–20 million
United States	1,000,000 estimated with Romani ancestry
Brazil	800,000
Spain	750,000–1,100,000 (1.87%)
Romania	619,007 (3.3%)
Turkey	500,000–2,750,000 (3.78%)
France	350,000–500,000
Bulgaria	325,343–750,000 (10.33%)
Hungary	309,632–870,000 (8.8%)
Argentina	c. 300,000
United Kingdom	225,000 (0.36%)
Russia	205,007–825,000 (0.58%)
Serbia	147,604–600,000 (8.23%)
Italy	120,000–180,000 (0.3%)
Greece	111,000–300,000 (2.7%)
Germany	105,000 (0.13%)
Slovakia	105,738–490,000 (9.02%)
Iran	100,000–110,000
North Macedonia	53,879–197,000 (9.56%)
Sweden	50,000–100,000
Ukraine	47,587–260,000 (0.57%)
Portugal	40,000–52,000 (0.49%)
Austria	40,000–50,000 (0.57%)
Kosovo	36,000 (2%)
Netherlands	32,000–40,000 (0.24%)
Ireland	22,435–37,500 (0.84%)
Poland	17,049–32,500 (0.09%)
Croatia	16,975–35,000 (0.79%)
Mexico	15,850
Moldova	12,778–107,100 (3.01%)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	8,864–58,000 (1.54%)
Colombia	c. 8,000
Albania	8,301–115,000 (3.59%)
Belarus	7,316–47,500 (0.5%)
Latvia	7,193–12,500 (0.56%)
Canada	5,255–80,000
Montenegro	5,251–20,000 (3.7%)
Languages
Romani language, Para-Romani varieties, languages of native regions
Religion
Predominantly Christianity Islam Shaktism tradition of Hinduism Romani mythology
Related ethnic groups
Dom, Lom, Domba; other Indo-Aryans

The Romani (also spelled Romany), colloquially known as Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally itinerant, living mostly in Europe and the Americas and originating from the northern Indian subcontinent, from the Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab regions of modern-day India.

Genetic findings appear to confirm that the Romani "came from a single group that left northwestern India about 1,500 years ago". Genetic research published in the European Journal of Human Genetics "revealed that over 70% of males belong to a single lineage that appears unique to the Roma". They are a dispersed people, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Turkey, Spain and Southern France). The Romani originated in northern India and arrived in Mid-West Asia and Europe around 1,000 years ago. They have been associated with another Indo-Aryan group, the Dom people: the two groups have been said to have separated from each other or, at least, to share a similar history. Specifically, the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the 6th and 11th century.

The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which is considered to be pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity. Beginning in 1888, the Gypsy Lore Society started to publish a journal that was meant to dispel rumors about their lifestyle.

Since the 19th century, some Romani have also migrated to the Americas. There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States; and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from people deported by the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition. In migrations since the late 19th century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada.

In February 2016, during the International Roma Conference, the Indian Minister of External Affairs stated that the people of the Roma community were children of India. The conference ended with a recommendation to the Government of India to recognize the Roma community spread across 30 countries as a part of the Indian diaspora.

The Romani language is divided into several dialects which together have an estimated number of speakers of more than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as high (several times as high according to high estimates). Many Romani are native speakers of the dominant language in their country of residence or of mixed languages combining the dominant language with a dialect of Romani; those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani.

Images for kids

Three Finnish Romani women in Helsinki, Finland, in 1930s
Gypsies camping. Welsh Romanies near Swansea, 1953
Romani girl
Two Gypsies by Francisco Iturrino
A Roma makes a complaint to a local magistrate in Hungary, by Sándor Bihari, 1886
The migration of the Romanis through the Middle East and Northern Africa to Europe
First arrival of the Romanies outside Bern in the 15th century, described by the chronicler as getoufte heiden ("baptized heathens") and drawn with dark skin and wearing Saracen-style clothing and weapons
An 1852 Wallachian poster advertising an auction of Romani slaves in Bucharest
Sinti and other Romani about to be deported from Germany, 22 May 1940
Münster, Sebastian (1552), "A Gipsy Family", The Cosmographia (facsimile of a woodcut), Basle
Nomadic Roma family traveling in Moldavia, 1837
Christian Romanies during the pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in France, 1980s
Two Orthodox Christian Romanies in Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Romani and bear (Belgrade, Banovo brdo, 1980s)
Members of the Cofradía de los Gitanos parading the "throne" of Mary of the O during the Holy Week in Malaga, Spain
Gypsy fortune-teller in Poland, by Antoni Kozakiewicz, 1884
Muslim Romanies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (around 1900)
27 June 2009: Fanfare Ciocărlia live in Athens, Greece
Street performance during the Khamoro World Roma Festival in Prague, 2007
Deportation of Roma from Asperg, Germany, 1940 (photograph by the Rassenhygienische Forschungsstelle)
Distribution of the Romani people in Europe (2007 Council of Europe "average estimates", totalling 9.8 million)
Antiziganist protests in Sofia, 2011
Paris Bordone, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt c. 1530, Elizabeth, at right, is shown as a Romani fortune-teller
August von Pettenkofen: Gypsy Children (1885), Hermitage Museum
Mihály Munkácsy: Gypsy Family (1884, oil on canvas)
Vincent van Gogh: The Caravans – Gypsy Camp near Arles (1888, oil on canvas)
Carmen
Esméralda
Nicolae Grigorescu Gypsy from Boldu (1897), Art Museum of Iași
Meg Merrilies from Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering (1815)

Romani people facts for kids

Images for kids

See also