The data is in the first national study of the community ordered by the High Commissioner of Migrations, which interviewed almost 1,600 Gypsies throughout Portugal last year.
The study coordinator told Lusa News Agency that there were basically three large groups.
One group is composed of youths under 34 with different levels of schooling, many of them have never worked and many live with their families.
A second group is 45 or older “living in very deficient conditions with greater vulnerability”.
The last group is made up of people of an active age with families or in a stable situation, with ages of between 24 and 35 many of them have had four years of school. This group has a larger number of workers, mainly people who travel from fair to fair as employees.
“They are more open and have non-Roma friends, their networks are less closed”
On the other hand, Roma schooling “is generally very short, particularly for girls”, they get married very young (between 13 and 15) and many are evangelists.
The National Gypsy People Day is 24 June.