Budjak, also known as Budzhak (Bulgarian, Russian and Ukrainian: Буджак, Romanian: Bugeac, Gagauz and Turkish: Bucak, Dobrujan Tatar: Buğak), is a historical region that was part of Bessarabia from 1812 to 1940.

Situated along the Black Sea, between the Danube and Dniester rivers, this multi-ethnic region covers an area of 13,188 km2 (5,092 sq mi) and is home to approximately 600,000 people.

The name Budjak itself was given to the area during Ottoman rule (1484–1812) and derives from the Turkish word bucak, meaning "borderland" or "corner", referring roughly to the land between what was then Akkerman (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), Bender, and Ismail (now Izmail).

The name has a number of spellings in languages of the region: Budziak in Polish, Bugeac in Romanian, Buxhak in Albanian, Bucak in Turkish, and Буджак in Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Russian, all pronounced more or less like [budʒak].

Budjak area, the northern Lower Danube, was described as the "wasteland of the Getae" by the ancient Greek geographer Strabo (1st century BC).

In fact, based on recent archaeological research, in this period of time, the area was most likely populated by sedentary farmers; among them were the Dacians and the Daco-Romans.

From the 1st century AD until the invasion of the Avars in 558, the Romans had established cities (poleis), military camps and some stations for the veterans and for the colons (apoikion) sent by the emperors.

Going westward, only the banks of the Dniester and Danube rivers were less forested comparatively to the surrounding areas (which nowadays form Moldova and Romania), therefore providing a natural route for herdsmen all the way from Mongolia to the Pannonian Plains (modern Hungary).

The region remained under Wallachian influence until the early 15th century, during the reign of Mircea the Elder, when the area was integrated into Moldavia by prince Alexander the Kind.

Under the Ottomans, Tighina was renamed Bender, while Chilia lost importance due to the construction of the Ismail (Izmail) fortress at the location of the Moldavian village Smil.

Under Ottoman rule, the three major cities each were the center of a sanjak, and were together officially part of Silistra (or Özi) Eyalet although Bender was north of Trajan's Wall and outside of the steppe region.

The 1812 Treaty of Bucharest transferred the territories of Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire east of the Prut River and north of the Danube, including Budjak, to Russian control.

Central and northern Bessarabia formed the center of the new Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic but part of the south, now known as Budjak, was apportioned to the Ukrainian SSR.

The northernmost connection enters Moldovan territory for a 7.63 km (43⁄4 miles) stretch of road, which is controlled by Ukraine as per an agreement between the two countries.

The region was inhabited by Romanians and Nogai Tatars through the Middle Ages, but became a home to several other ethnicities and religious groups in the 19th century when it was part of the Russian Empire.

Muslim, Turkic-speaking Nogai Tatars inhabited Ottoman-dominated Budjak until the start of the 19th century, but were forced to abandon the region once the Russian Empire got control over the territory.

Like Moldova, Budjak is home to a small minority of Gagauzes: an Orthodox Christian Turkic people who arrived from the eastern Balkans in the early 19th century,[9] and settled part of the area vacated by the Nogais.

Budjak was the only region within the former Russian Empire where a significant number of Sephardic Ladino-speaking Jews could be found as late as the second half of the 19th century.

These Sephardim later assimilated with the majority of local Ashkenazic Jewry, but many retained surnames of either Turkic origin or otherwise suggestive of Sephardic descent.

Since the previous census in 1989, its Moldovan population increased by 1% relative to the number of Ukrainian and Bulgarians, although the actual number of Moldovans has decreased in absolute terms, yet at a slower rate than that of Ukrainians, Russians and Bulgarians, probably due to the fact that a portion of the non-Moldovan population of the area were relatively recent arrivals from other regions of the former Soviet Union, and chose to return upon its dissolution.