The Roma Gypsy, also known as the Romani, are a traditionally nomadic people, living mostly in Europe and the Americas and originating from the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent, apparently from the region that is currently occupied by the Indian states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab.

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).

There is no official or reliable count of the Romani populations worldwide. Many Romani refuse to register their ethnic identity in official censuses for fear of discrimination. Others are descendants of intermarriage with local populations and no longer identify only as Romani, or not at all.

The ancestors of modern-day Roma people were previously Hindu, but adopted Roman Catholicism or Islam depending on their respective regions through which they had migrated. Muslim Roma are found in Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Egypt, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. In North America, they followed Roman Catholicism and consider the Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla as a patron saint.