Budeşti (Budeshti in Romani) is a small provincial town in Călăraşi County, approximately 30 km south-east of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Budeşti was the birthplace of famous Romanian violin player Ion Voicu. It has a population of 9,702 people. Near Budeşti, the Dâmboviţa river flows into the Argeş River.

[edit] Demographics

According to the 2002 census, Budeşti is the Romanian town with the largest proportion of Roma, and the only urban area where Roma make up more than 20% of the total population. It must be noted, however, that various rural localities have larger proportions of Roma. Budeşti is also the only town in Romania where the Romani language has co-official status alongside Romanian, with education, signage and public service provided in both languages. 78.95% of the town's population is of Romanian ethnicity, 21.00% is of Roma ethnicity and 0.04% is of other ethnicity.

In terms of religion, 99.59% of the population declared themselves to be Romanian Orthodox in the 2002 census, 0.28% are Pentecostal, and 0.11% declared another religion.