The 2022 census marked the first time that “Roma” was included as an ethnicity option in the Scottish census, instead of just “Gypsy/Traveller” as in 2011.

However, National Records of Scotland (NRS) raised concerns after analysis found that 36.5 per cent of the supposed Roma population reported their country of birth as Italy, compared with only 19.1 per cent born in Romania.

Of the 3,200 people who identified as Roma on the census, 1,200 said they were born in Italy.

In a report, NRS researchers said they “believe the box may have been ticked in error by individuals born in Rome, Italy but cannot conclusively determine what proportion of individuals may have inadvertently ticked the wrong ethnicity, as some are likely to be people who would be considered part of the Roma ethnic group”.

“We have decided to publish this data despite this quality issue, but we recommend that users consider this when interpreting results for the Roma population,” they added.

A new Scottish government report on the Roma population said it had “excluded responses from individuals who selected the Roma ethnic group and Italy as their country of birth” to account for the error.