Austria - Religion
The constitution and other laws and policies protect religious freedom and, in practice, the government generally enforced these protections. However, some religious minority groups complained about second-class status. The government classified some of these groups as "sects."
The country has an area of 32,369 square miles and a population of 8.2 million. According to 2001 census figures and estimates during the year from the Vienna Institute of Demography, membership in major religious groups is as follows: Roman Catholic Church, 68 percent; Muslim community, 6 percent; Protestants, including Lutheran and Swiss Reformed churches (Evangelical Church-Augsburg and Helvetic confessions), 3.9 percent; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, and Bulgarian), 2.6 percent; other Christian churches, 0.9 percent; Jehovah's Witnesses, 0.3 percent; other non-Christian religious groups, 0.2 percent; and Jewish community, 0.1 percent. Atheists and others not indicating a religious affiliation account for 18 percent.
According to a Vienna Institute of Demography study released in August 2010, the country has witnessed a steady decline in religious affiliation over the past 60 years. The study cites general religious apathy and an increasingly secular world view as the main reasons for this decline. A September survey by an Austrian magazine found that recent abuse scandals involving the Austrian Catholic Church had also turned some citizens away from all forms of organized religion, particularly the Christian churches.
One notable exception to this trend is the Muslim community, which, given recent inflows of immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries such as Turkey, is expected to continue to increase in proportion to the population. The Vienna Institute of Demography study estimates that by 2051 Muslims will be 18 percent of the population. The numbers of Muslims in Vienna and in the province of Vorarlberg are higher than the national average, at 7.8 percent and 8.4 percent respectively; industry in these areas drew a disproportionately higher number of guest workers from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia.
According to a 2009 survey in an Austrian magazine, of citizens who attend religious services, 2 percent of citizens attend services more than once a week, 10 percent attend weekly, 9 percent attend a minimum of once a month, 24 percent attend several times a year (on special occasions), and 55 percent rarely attend.
The provinces of Carinthia and Burgenland have higher percentages of Protestants than the national average at 10.3 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.
The vast majority of groups considered "sects" by the government are small organizations with fewer than 100 members. Among the larger groups is the Church of Scientology, which claims between 5,000 and 7,000 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.
Between January and December 2010, the NGO Forum Against Anti-Semitism reported 70 anti-Semitic incidents, including four assaults. The incidents also included name calling, graffiti and defacement, threats, property damage, and vilifying letters and telephone calls. The European Union's Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia declared in the past that anti-Semitism in the country was typically characterized by diffuse and traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes rather than by acts of physical aggression.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
