White boys from poor homes have fallen even further behind their peers in ethnic minority groups over the past five years, a report has found.

They suffer the ‘worst start in life’, with the least success at school and bad employment prospects, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said.

Being poor now has a far more negative impact on the education of whites than it does for other ethnic groups. Researchers found only 28 per cent got five good GCSEs in 2012/13 – only a marginal improvement on 19 per cent in 2008/9.

Suffering the 'worst start in life': White boys from poor backgrounds have fallen even further behind their peers in ethnic minority groups over the past five years, according to a new report by the EHRC (file picture)

Disadvantaged pupils from black, Chinese and Asian groups performed better in both years, and improved by a larger margin in the five-year gap.

In its most comprehensive review of equality in Britain yet, the commission expressed concern that poor white boys ‘continued to fall further behind every other ethnic group’ at school.

EHRC commissioner: Laura Carstensen (above) said the report 'demonstrates how, while the British people demand a fairer society... our achievements still lag behind our aspirations in some areas'

EHRC commissioner Laura Carstensen said: ‘This wide-ranging, evidence-based review demonstrates how, while the British people demand a fairer society where everybody has an equal opportunity to make the best of their lives, whatever their background, our achievements still lag behind our aspirations in some areas.’

The commission examined the percentage of pupils gaining at least five A*-C grades at GCSE, including English and maths.

Among pupils eligible for free school meals – the Government’s measure of deprivation – 43 per cent of black boys now achieve the benchmark, an improvement of 14.2 percentage points in five years.

The proportion of disadvantaged Asian boys achieving it has improved by 13.4 percentage points to 48 per cent. Disadvantaged Chinese boys have seen an improvement of 10 percentage points to 74 per cent.

White girls from poor backgrounds are now soaring ahead of their male peers, with 28 per cent achieving the benchmark in 2008/9 and 37 per cent achieving it in 2012/13. In all groups, girls performed better than boys.

The report also shows how ethnicity determines whether wealth affects performance at school. Among Chinese pupils, disadvantage did not appear to be a hindrance to achievement, with those on free school meals lagging behind peers by only one percentage point.

Among white pupils, however, there was a gap of around 30 percentage points between those on free school meals and their peers.

The report, Is Britain Fairer?, also showed that a higher proportion of youngsters from ethnic minorities go on to higher education than white pupils.

It goes on to claim that younger people have the worst economic prospects for several generations, and life has got worse for them over the past five years.

More than 76,000 children missed out on their first choice secondary school last year.