Gypsies and Irish Travellers are more likely to live in a house than a caravan, the first official data on the group shows.

More than 60 per cent said they lived in a house or bungalow, according to an analysis of the 2011 England and Wales Census. This was the first year the census included a tick box for those who identify themselves as Gypsy or Irish Traveller, rather than Roma.

The extent of social exclusion suffered by the group was illustrated in the data, with 60 per cent reporting no qualifications at all. This was the highest proportion of any ethnic group and almost three times higher than for England and Wales as a whole.

Gypsies and Irish travellers also had significantly worse health than the general population. They had the lowest proportion of any ethnic group rating their general health as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ - at 70 per cent compared to 81 per cent of the overall population.

They also were more than twice as likely to live in social housing than the overall population of England and Wales, with more than four in 10 using it, compared to 16 per cent generally.