 Prior to 2004 Butel municipality was within the boundaries of a larger Čair municipality that had a majority Macedonian population (48.60%), followed by Albanians (38.89%), Turks (4.12%), Bosniaks (3.40%), Romani (1.46%) and Serbs (2.11%).The new territorial-administrative reform of 2004 divided the municipal unit into a smaller Čair municipality with an Albanian majority and a separate Butel municipality with a Macedonian majority.The new boundaries of Čair municipality resulted in the loss of its industrial zone to Butel municipality which previously provided most of the revenue for the Čair municipal budget.