The constitution provides for freedom of religion.US State Dept 2022 report
In 2023, the country was scored 3 out of 4 for religious freedom;Freedom House website, retrieved 2023-08-08 in 2021, the government established a new staff unit in the fight against antisemitism sentiment and violence.
According to government estimates, in 2022, Roman Catholics make up over 55% of the population. Catholics And Culture website, retrieved 2023-08-28 Followers of Eastern Orthodoxy make up 4.9%, Protestants make up 3.8% and Muslims (mainly Sunni) make up 8.3%. Over 22% of the population follows no religion, while the remainder includes Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, and other religious groups.
This report is informed by the US State Dept 2007 International Freedom Report. Later reports are available.
Religious demography
The country has an area of and a population of 8.2 million. The largest minority groups are Croatian, Slovene, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Roma. In past years the country experienced some immigration from countries such as Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina, which increased the number of Muslims in the country. The Muslim community has more than doubled since 1991 to an estimated 339,000, or 4.2 percent of the population. In recent years immigration has slowed down due to the introduction of a quota system in the late 1990s. By far the largest ethnic group is Turkish, of which 123,000 have Turkish citizenship. Many more ethnic Turks are Austrian citizens. The next largest groups are Bosnians with 64,600, Yugoslavians with 21,600, Macedonians with 11,000, and Iranians with 3,800. The largest groups of Arab Muslims are Egyptians with 3,500 and Tunisians with 1,000.
According to the most recent census in 2001, membership in major religions is as follows: Roman Catholic Church, 74 percent; Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches (Evangelical Church-Augsburger and Helvetic confessions), 4.7 percent; Islamic community, 4.2 percent; Jewish community, 0.1 percent; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian), 2.2 percent; other Christian churches, 0.9 percent; and other non-Christian religious groups, 0.2 percent. Atheists account for 12 percent, and 2 percent do not indicate a religious affiliation.
The vast majority of groups termed "sects" by the Government are small organizations with fewer than 100 members. There was a report of a physical attack against a person and a violent attack against property. Among the larger groups is the Church of Scientology, with between 5,000 and 6,000 members, and the Unification Church, with approximately 700 adherents. Other groups termed "sects" include Divine Light Mission, Eckankar, Hare Krishna, the Holosophic Community, the Osho Movement, Sahaja Yoga, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Transcendental Meditation, Center for Experimental Society Formation, Fiat Lux, Universal Life, and The Family.
The provinces of Carinthia and Burgenland have somewhat higher percentages of Protestants than the national average. The number of Muslims is higher than the national average in Vienna (7.8 percent) and the province of Vorarlberg (8.4 percent), where industry draws a disproportionately higher number of guest workers from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia.
According to a poll by FESSEL-GfK, 78 percent of respondents state that they belong to a church or religious group. Of that number, 2 percent attend services more than once a week, 15 percent attend weekly, 17 percent attend a minimum of once a month, 34 percent attend several times a year (on special occasions), and 32 percent never attend.
Status of religious freedom Legal and policy framework The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government generally respected this right in practice, except for religious groups that receive second-class status (or no status) under the 1998 Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities. Some of these groups are termed "sects." One group that has gone to court over its treatment is the Jehovah's Witnesses, which has taken its case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Church of Scientology is also denied acknowledgement as a religious group.
The Government is secular. The Roman Catholic Church is the predominant religion; many Catholic holidays are also government holidays.
The status of religious organizations is governed by the 1874 Law on Recognition of Churches and by the 1998 Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities, which establishes the status of "confessional communities." Religious organizations are divided into three legal categories (listed in descending order of status): Officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. Each category of organizations possesses a distinct set of rights, privileges, and responsibilities.
Recognition as a religious society under the 1874 law has wide-ranging implications, such as the authority to participate in the mandatory church contributions program, to provide religious instruction in public schools, and to bring religious workers into the country to act as ministers, missionaries, or teachers. Under the 1874 law, religious societies have "public corporation" status. This status permits religious societies to engage in a number of public or quasi-public activities that are denied to confessional communities and associations. The Government provides financial support for religious teachers at both public and private schools to religious societies but not to other religious organizations. The Government provides financial support to private schools run by the officially recognized religious societies.
The officially recognized religious societies are:
Catholic Church Roman Rite (recognized before 1781) Byzantine Rite (recognized since 1782) Armenian Rite (recognized since 1810) Protestant Church (recognized since 1781) Lutheran called "Augsburger" confession Reformed called "Helvetic" confession Eastern Orthodox Church (recognized since 1782) Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Serbian Orthodox Church Romanian Orthodox Church Russian Orthodox Church Bulgarian Orthodox Church Old Catholic Church (recognized since 1874) Jewish Community (recognized since 1890) Islamic Community (recognized since 1912) Methodist Church of Austria (recognized since 1951) Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) (recognized since 1955) Oriental Orthodox Churches Armenian Apostolic Church (recognized since 1971) Coptic Orthodox Church (recognized since 2003) Syriac Orthodox Church New Apostolic Church (recognized since 1975) Buddhist community (recognized since 1983) Jehovah's Witnesses (recognized since 2009) Alevi Community (recognized since 2013) Free Churches in Austria (recognized since 2013) Baptists Evangelical Alliance Free Christian Community (Pentecostals) ELAIA Christian Community Mennonites
The 1998 Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities imposed new criteria on religious groups to achieve religious society status, although it allowed previously recognized societies to retain their status. New criteria included a 20-year period of existence (at least 10 of which must be as a group organized as a confessional community under the 1998 law) and membership equaling at least two one-thousandths of the country's population (approximately 16,000 persons). Only 7 of the recognized religious groups (Catholic Church, Protestant Church, Islamic Community, Eastern Orthodox Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Alevi Community and the Free Churches) meet this membership requirement. Of the unrecognized religious groups, no one meet this latter membership requirement.
The 1998 law allows nonrecognized religious groups to seek official status as "confessional communities" without the fiscal and educational privileges available to recognized religions. To apply, groups must have at least 300 members and submit to the Government their written statutes describing the goals, rights, and obligations of members, as well as membership regulations, officials, and financing. Groups also must submit a written version of their religious doctrine, which must differ from that of any religious society recognized under the 1874 law or any confessional community established under the 1998 law. The Ministry of Education then examines the doctrine for a determination that the group's basic beliefs do not violate public security, public order, health and morals, or the rights and freedoms of citizens. On June 8–9, 2005, several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) meeting on Anti-Semitism and on Other Forms of Intolerance concluded that "the existing system and in particular the 1998 Law on Confessional Communities is inherently discriminatory as it de facto prevents religious organizations from obtaining a state-recognized status and relegates them to a second-class status."
Once the Government recognizes them, religious confessional communities have juridical standing, which permits them to engage in such activities as purchasing real estate in their own names and contracting for goods and services. A religious group that seeks to obtain this new status is subject to a six-month waiting period from the time of application to the Ministry of Education and Culture. According to the Ministry, as of June 2007, 14 groups had applied for the status of religious confessional community, and 11 were granted the new status. The Church of Scientology and the Hindu Mandir Association withdrew their applications. The Hindu Mandir Association reapplied under the name Hindu Religious Community and was granted the new status. The Ministry rejected the application of the Sahaja Yoga group in 1998. Since then, its decision has been upheld in the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court. Following a May 2006 decree by the Ministry of Education, the ELAIA Christian Community (ELAIA Christengemeinde) also received status as confessional community after applying on October 13, 2005.
In 2018 following religious groups constitute confessional communities according to the law:
Baháʼí Faith (since 1998) The Christian Community – Movement for Religious Renewal (since 1998) Hindu Community in Austria (since 1998) Seventh-day Adventist Church (since 1998) Pentecostal Community of God (since 2001) Old Alevi Community (since 2013) Shia Islam Community (since 2013) Family Federation for World Peace a.k.a. Unification Church
Religious groups that do not qualify for either religious society or confessional community status may become associations under the Law of Associations. Associations are corporations under law and have many of the same rights as confessional communities, including the right to own real estate. Some groups have organized as associations, even while applying for recognition as religious societies.
There are no restrictions on missionary activities. Historically, unrecognized religious groups had problems obtaining resident permits for foreign religious workers. Unlike visas for religious workers of recognized religions, religious workers who are members of unrecognized religions are subject to a numerical cap for what is technically a nonpreference immigrant visa category. Administrative procedures adopted in 1997 for certain unrecognized groups, which exempt these workers from having to obtain governmental permission to work, helped to address this problem in part. These procedures allowed for application under an immigrant visa category that is neither employment nor family-based. New visa laws that became effective in January 2006 brought certain changes in the implementation for a number of visa categories. New poverty guidelines and shortened visa validity periods make it more difficult for some members of this group to obtain resident permits.