White working class areas are being particularly ignored by the initiative, which was launched by the coalition government in 2011 to offer more state-funded school places, says the Education Policy Institute (EPI) report.
There are currently 500 free schools across England and this week's Queen's Speech announced that a further 220 will be set up.
But the EPI's Free Schools in England report found that many disadvantaged areas are being ignored.
These include "challenged white communities" and "hampered neighbourhoods", which are among 24 terms the Office for National Statistics uses to describe different social, cultural and economic areas.
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