Religion inAustria is predominantlyChristianity, adhered to by 68.2% of the country's population according to the 2021 national survey[a] conducted byStatistics Austria.[1] Among Christians, 80.9% wereCatholics, 7.2% were Orthodox Christians (mostly belonging to theEastern Orthodox Church), 5.6% wereProtestants, while the remaining 6.2% were other Christians, belonging to other denominations of the religion or not affiliated to any denomination.[1] In the same census, 8.3% of the Austrians declared that their religion wasIslam, 1.2% declared to believe in other non-Christian religions (includingBuddhism,Hindusim,Judaism and others), and 22.4% declared they did not belong to any religion, denomination or religious community.[1]
According to church membership data, in 2024 49.6% of the population were Catholics. This was the first time less than half of Austrians was a member of the Catholic Church.[2][3] Around 3% adhered to Protestant churches.[4]
Austria was historically a strongly Catholic country, having been the centre of theHabsburg monarchy (1273–1918) which championed Catholicism.[5] Although in the 16th century many Austrians converted toProtestantism,Lutheranism in particular, as theProtestant Reformation (begun in 1517) was spreading across Europe, the Habsburgs enacted measures ofCounter-Reformation as early as 1527 and harshly repressed Austrian Protestantism, albeit a minority of Austrians remained Protestant.[5] A few decades after the fall of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of theWorld War I, and the transformation of Austria into afederal republic, at least since the 1970s there has been a decline of Christianity (with the exception of Orthodox churches) and a proliferation of other religions, a process which has been particularly pronounced in the capital state ofVienna.[6]
Between the censuses of 1971 and 2021, Christianity declined from 93.8% to 68.2% of the Austrian population (Catholicism from 87.4% to 55.2%, and Protestantism from 6% to 3.8%, while Orthodox Christianity grew from 2.2% to 4.9% between 2001 and 2021).[1] During the same timespan,Islam grew from being the religion of 0.2% to 8.3% of the Austrian population, and the proportion of people neither affiliating with nor belonging to any religion grew from 4.3% to 22.4%.[1]
| Religion | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2021 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
| Christianity | 6,632,500 | 95.7 | 6,763,400 | 95.6 | 7,022,400 | 93.8 | 6,821,300 | 90.2 | 6,489,100 | 83.2 | 6,485,700 | 80.7 | 6,093,700 | 68.2 |
| —Catholicism | 6,170,100 | 89.0 | 6,295,100 | 89.0 | 6,548,300 | 87.4 | 6,372,600 | 84.3 | 6,081,500 | 78.0 | 5,915,400 | 73.6 | 4,933,300 | 55.2 |
| —Orthodox Christianity** | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 179,500 | 2.2 | 436,700 | 4.9 |
| —Protestantism | 429,500 | 6.2 | 438,700 | 6.2 | 447,100 | 6.0 | 423,200 | 5.6 | 388,700 | 5.0 | 376,200 | 4.7 | 340,300 | 3.8 |
| —Old Catholicism | 32,900 | 0.5 | 29,600 | 0.4 | 27,000 | 0.4 | 25,500 | 0.3 | 18,900 | 0.2 | 14,600 | 0.2 | 4,900 | 0.1 |
| —Other Christians | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 378,500 | 4.2 |
| Islam** | – | – | – | – | 22,300 | 0.3 | 76,900 | 1.0 | 158,800 | 2.0 | 339,000 | 4.2 | 745,600 | 8.3 |
| Buddhism*** | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 10,400 | 0.1 | 26,600 | 0.3 |
| Hinduism*** | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3,600 | 0.0 | 10,100 | 0.1 |
| Judaism | 11,200 | 0.2 | 9,000 | 0.1 | 8,500 | 0.1 | 7,100 | 0.1 | 7,300 | 0.1 | 8,100 | 0.1 | 5,400 | 0.1 |
| Other religions | 23,100 | 0.3 | 31,400 | 0.4 | 74,400 | 1.0 | 118,900 | 1.6 | 197,400 | 2.5 | 62,200 | 0.9 | 62,100 | 0.7 |
| No religion | 264,000 | 3.8 | 266,000 | 3.8 | 321,200 | 4.3 | 452,000 | 6.0 | 672,300 | 8.6 | 963,300 | 12.0 | 1,997,700 | 22.4 |
| Not stated | 3,100 | 0.0 | 4,000 | 0.1 | 42,800 | 0.6 | 79,000 | 1.0 | 271,000 | 3.5 | 160,700 | 2.0 | – | – |
| Total population | 6,933,900 | 7,073,800 | 7,491,500 | 7,555,300 | 7,795,800 | 8,032,900 | 8,935,800 | |||||||
| *1951–2001: religious affiliations of the entire population counted in the census. 2021-: religious affiliations counted in a microcensus and extrapolated to the total population.[1][a] **Orthodox Christianity and Islam were counted as part of "other religions" until, respectively, the censuses of 1971 and 2001, in which they began to be counted separately.[1] ***Buddhism and Hinduism were counted separately, albeit only in some data reports, at least since the census of 2001.[1] | ||||||||||||||
Census statistics 1951–2021:[1]
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| Federal state | Christianity total | of which | Islam | Other religions | No religion | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catholicism | Orthodox Christianity | Protestantism | ||||||||||||
| Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | |
 Burgenland | 237,900 | 80.3 | 194,100 | 65.5 | 8,000 | 2.7 | 33,700 | 11.4 | 6,400 | 2.2 | 2,100 | 0.7 | 49,900 | 16.8 |
 Carinthia | 434,500 | 77.2 | 356,900 | 63.4 | 20,700 | 3.7 | 41,800 | 7.4 | 31,100 | 5.5 | 3,900 | 0.7 | 93,100 | 16.5 |
 Lower Austria | 1.242,000 | 73.4 | 983,100 | 58.1 | 49,000 | 2.9 | 56,700 | 3.3 | 83,200 | 4.9 | 21,500 | 1.3 | 346,500 | 20.5 |
 Upper Austria | 1.098,600 | 73.4 | 931,300 | 62.3 | 43,000 | 2.9 | 48,500 | 3.2 | 125,500 | 8.4 | 12,800 | 0.9 | 259,200 | 17.3 |
 Salzburg | 415,500 | 74.2 | 322,000 | 57.5 | 28,100 | 5.0 | 17,100 | 3.0 | 36,400 | 6.5 | 6,600 | 1.2 | 101,900 | 18.2 |
 Styria | 894,300 | 71.7 | 789,300 | 63.3 | 34,100 | 2.7 | 39,600 | 3.2 | 63,400 | 5.1 | 8,400 | 0.7 | 281,500 | 22.6 |
 Tyrol | 556,300 | 73.2 | 502,600 | 66.2 | 23,400 | 3.1 | 22,700 | 3.0 | 65,900 | 8.7 | 2,500 | 0.3 | 134,800 | 17.8 |
 Vienna | 942,000 | 49.0 | 611,700 | 31.8 | 215,200 | 11.2 | 70,300 | 3.7 | 284,900 | 14.8 | 38,700 | 2.0 | 655,400 | 34.1 |
 Vorarlberg | 272,700 | 68.3 | 242,400 | 60.7 | 15,100 | 3.8 | 10,000 | 2.5 | 48,800 | 12.2 | 2,500 | 0.6 | 75,400 | 18.9 |
TheProtestant Reformation spread from northern Germany to Austria. By theCouncil of Trent in 1545, almost half of the Austrian population had converted toLutheranism, while a minority also endorsedCalvinism. Eastern Austria was more affected by this phenomenon than western Austria. After 1545, Austria wasrecatholicized in theCounter Reformation. TheHabsburgs imposed a strict regime to restore the influence of the Catholic Church among Austrians and their campaign proved successful. The Habsburgs for a long time viewed themselves as the vanguard of Catholicism, while all the other Christian confessions and religions were repressed.
In 1775,Maria Theresa gave official permission to theMechitarist Congregation of theArmenian Catholic Church to settle in the Habsburg Empire.
In 1781, during theAustrian Enlightenment,Emperor Joseph II issued a Patent of Tolerance for Austria that allowed other confessions a limitedfreedom of worship. Religious freedom was declared a constitutional right in Cisleithania after the Austro-HungarianAusgleich in 1867, thus paying tribute to the fact that the monarchy was home to numerous religions besides Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and BulgarianOrthodox Christians (Austria neighboured theOttoman Empire for centuries), bothCalvinist andLutheranProtestants, and Jews. In 1912, after the annexation ofBosnia Hercegovina in 1908,Islam was officially recognised in Austria.[7]
TheAustrian Jewish community of 1938—Vienna alone counted more than 200,000—was reduced to around 4,500 during theSecond World War, with about 65,000 Jewish Austrians killed inthe Holocaust and 130,000 emigrating.[8] The large majority of the current Jewish population are post-war immigrants, particularly from eastern Europe and central Asia (includingBukharan Jews).[9]Buddhism was legally recognised as a religion in Austria in 1983.[10]
Austria was greatly affected by theProtestant Reformation, to a point where a significant part of the population becameProtestant.Lutheranism was the most successful Protestant confession; that was the case among otherGerman-speaking populations across theHoly Roman Empire and Austria was indeed one of them.Calvinism did not receive that much support. The prominent position of theHabsburgs in theCounter-Reformation, however, saw Protestantism all but wiped out beginning in1545, restoring Catholicism as the dominant religion once more.
The significant Jewish population (around 200,000 in 1938), mainly residing inVienna, was reduced to just a couple of thousand through mass emigration in 1938 (more than 2/3 of the Jewish population emigrated from 1938 until 1941), and the followingHolocaust during the Nazi period. Immigration in more recent years, primarily fromTurkey and the formerYugoslavia, has led to an increased number of Muslims andSerbian Orthodox Christians.[11] As in other European countries, there has been a growth ofPagan movements in Austria in recent years.
According to church membership data, in 2024 49.6% of the population were Catholics. This was the first time less than half of Austrians was a member of the Catholic Church.[2][3]
Catholicism is the largest religion in Austria, representing 49.6% of the total population in 2024.[2][3] TheCatholic Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Vienna, Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot ofterritorial abbey ofWettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops isCardinalChristoph Schönborn, who belongs to the Central European noble family ofSchönborn. Although Austria has noprimate, thearchbishop of Salzburg is titledPrimus Germaniae (Primate of Germany).
Eastern Orthodox andOriental Orthodox churches grew over the last decades due to the coming ofSouth Slavic immigrants from theBalkans to Austria. The largest group of Eastern Orthodox in Austria areSerbs. TheVienna Institute of Demography of theAustrian Academy of Sciences estimated in that there were 397,219 Eastern Orthodox Christians in Austria in 2016, representing the 4.6% of the total population.
TheProtestant Reformation spread from northern Germany to Austria. By theCouncil of Trent in 1545, almost half of the Austrian population had converted toLutheranism, while a much smaller minority also endorsedCalvinism. Eastern Austria was more affected by this phenomenon than western Austria. After 1545, Austria wasrecatholicized in theCounter Reformation. TheHabsburgs imposed a strict regime to restore the influence of the Catholic Church among Austrians and their campaign proved successful; the Habsburgs for a long time viewed themselves as the vanguard of Catholicism, while all the other Christian confessions and religions were suppressed.
Protestantism reached a peak percentage of 6.2% by 1951 for the first time in Austrian history since the success of the Counter-Reformation. Currently, it claims around 3.5% of the population. Austrian Protestants are overwhelminglyLutheran (3.4%), with a smallReformed community (0.1%). New arriving Protestant churches are growing in membership, especiallyEvangelical Protestants andPentecostals.
A study from theVienna Institute of Demography of theAustrian Academy of Sciences found that there were an estimate of 412,423 Protestants of all types in Austria in 2016.[12] TheLutheranProtestant Church of the Augsburg Confession in Austria has about 300,000 (3.4%) members.[13] TheReformed Church in Austria, aCalvinist body, has roughly 13,590 members.
TheMennonite World Conference counted a small Mennonite population in Austria. In 2022, there were 402Mennonites.[14]
The GermanYearly Meeting ofQuakers includes Quakers in both Germany and Austria and numbered less than 500 in 2017.[15]
Due to immigration, especially from theBalkans,Turkey and theMiddle East, the number ofMuslims in Austria has grown exponentially over the latest decades, with an estimated number of Muslims of 686,599, or 7.9% of the total population as of 2016, up from 4.2% in 2001.[16][17][12]
| Year | Absolute number | Percentage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 76,939 | 1.0% | [18] |
| 1991 | 158,776 | 2.0% | [18] |
| 2001 | 345,906 | 4.1% | [16] |
| 2009 | 515,914 | 6.2% | [16] |
| 2016 | 686,599 | 7.9% | [12] |
| 2021 | 745,600 | 8.3% | [1] |
Buddhism is a legally recognized religion inAustria and it is followed by thousands of people. Although still small in absolute numbers (10,402 at the 2001census), Buddhism enjoys widespread acceptance in Austria. A majority of Buddhists in the country are Austrian nationals (some of them naturalized after immigration from Asia, predominantly fromChina andVietnam), while a considerable number of them are foreign nationals.
As in mostEuropean countries, different branches and schools of Buddhism are represented by groups of varying sizes.Vienna not only has the largest number of foreign residents, but is also the place with the longest tradition of Buddhism in the country. Most of Austria's Buddhist temples and centres of practice can be found there; some with a specific Chinese, Vietnamese,Tibetan orJapanese appearance. The latest development has been the establishment of a "Buddhist cemetery" around a stupa-like building for funeral ceremonies at theVienna Central Cemetery.
Hinduism is aminority religion in Austria, and according to the 2001 census, it was the religion of 3629 people. Since 1998, the 'Hindu Community in Austria' (HRÖ), the official representative of Hindus in Austria, has been able to call itself an 'Official registered confessional community', yet does not enjoy full legal recognition from the state.[19][self-published source?]
Austria has seen a growth ofPagan movements in recent years, especiallyDruidic (Druidentum), but alsoGermanic Heathen (Heidentum),Wiccan andNeopagan witchcraft (Hexentum) groups. As of 2010 Austrian motorway authorities have been hiring Druids forgeomantic works intended to reduce the number of accidents on the worst stretches of Austrian speedways.[20][21]
Celtic Neopaganism and Neo-Druids are particularly popular inAustria, by virtue of Austria being the location of the proto-CelticHallstatt culture. TheKeltendorf inDiex,Kärnten combines archaeological reconstruction with "Europeangeomancy". TheEuropäische Keltische Gemeinschaft has been active since 1998.
| Main denominations in Austria[22][23][24][13][25] | |||||||
| Year | Population | Catholics | Percentage | Protestants[26] | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 6,933,905 | 6,170,084 | 89.0% | 429,493 | 6.2% | ||
| 1961 | 7,073,807 | 6,295,075 | 89.0% | 438,663 | 6.2% | ||
| 1971 | 7,491,526 | 6,548,316 | 87.4% | 447,070 | 6.0% | ||
| 1981 | 7,555,338 | 6,372,645 | 84.3% | 423,162 | 5.6% | ||
| 1991 | 7,795,786 | 6,081,454 | 78.0% | 388,709 | 5.0% | ||
| 2001 | 8,032,926 | 5,915,421 | 73.6% | 376,150 | 4.7% | ||
| 2011 | 8,408,121 | 5,403,722 | 64.3% | 319,752 | 3.8% | ||
| 2012 | 8,451,860 | 5,359,151 | 63.4% | 325,905 | 3.9% | ||
| 2013 | 8,507,786 | 5,308,515 | 62.4% | 313,352 | 3.7% | ||
| 2014 | 8,584,926 | 5,265,378 | 61.4% | 309,158 | 3.6% | ||
| 2015 | 8,700,471 | 5,211,238 | 59.9% | 306,183 | 3.5% | ||
| 2016 | 8,773,686 | 5,162,622 | 58.8% | 301,729 | 3.4% | ||
| 2017 | 8,823,054 | 5,112,330[25] | 57.9% | 296,338 | 3.4% | ||
| 2018 | 8,859,992 | 5,053,074 | 57.0% | 292,597 | 3.3% | ||
| 2019 | 4,980,000[27] | ||||||
| 2022 | 8,978,929 | 4,830,000[28] | 53.7% | ||||
