On average across the 11 EU Member States surveyed, the situation of Roma women in core areas of social life, such as education, employment and health is worse in comparison to that of Roma men. The results show also important differences between Member States that need to be taken into account when developing and implementing Roma inclusion policies and actions.

In September 2010 the European Commission established an internal Roma Task Force with the participation of FRA to assess the process of Roma inclusion. The initial findings of the Roma Task Force in December 2010 noted a lack of robust and comparable data. In order to improve data availability FRA conducted in 2011 a survey of Roma and non‐Roma populations living in close proximity in areas where Roma live in a higher than national average proportion. The survey covered 11 EU Member States, where the majority of Roma live, including: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. It collected information on the respondents’ socio‐economic condition and their perceived experiences of discrimination and rights awareness.

The survey was conducted in close cooperation with the European Commission, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. For the FRA survey, Gallup Europe carried out the fieldwork under the supervision of FRA’s expert staff that developed the survey questionnaire, observed the training and fieldwork, and undertook the data analysis.