Religion
Main article: Religion in Austria| Main Denominations in Austria | |||||||
| Year | Population | Catholics | Percentage | Lutherans | 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 % | 338,709 | 5.0% | ||
| 2001 | 8,032,926 | 5,915,421 | 73.6 % | 376,150 | 4.7% | ||
| 2005 | 8,250,000 | 5,662,782 | 68.5 % | - | – | ||
| 2008 | 8,350,000 | 5,579,493 | 66.8 % | 328,346 | 3.9% | ||
| 2009 | 8,376,761 | 5,533,517 | 66.0 % | 325,314 | 3.9% | ||
| 2010 | 8,404,252 | 5,452,734 | 64.8 % | 323,863 | 3.8% | ||
At the end of the 20th century, about 74% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Austrian Christians are obliged to pay a mandatory membership fee (calculated by income—about 1%) to their church; this payment is called "Kirchenbeitrag" ("Ecclesiastical/Church contribution").
Since the second half of the 20th century, the number of adherents and churchgoers has declined. Data for the end of 2005 from the Austrian Roman Catholic church lists 5,662,782 members, or 68.5% of the total Austrian population, and a Sunday church attendance of 753,701 or 9% of the total Austrian population. Data for the end of 2008 published by the Austrian Roman Catholic church shows a further reduction to 5,579,493 members or 66.8% of the total Austrian population, and a Sunday church attendance of 698,527 or 8% of the total Austrian population. The Lutheran church also recorded a loss of 47,904 adherents between 2001 and 2008. As of January 2010 the percentage of Catholics in Austria declined to 64.8%.
About 12% of the population declared that they have no religion. in 2001. Of the remaining people, around 340,000 are registered as members of various Muslim communities, mainly due to the influx from Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. About 180,000 are members of Orthodox Churches (mostly Serbs), about 21,000 people are active Jehovah's Witnesses and about 8,100 are Jewish.
The Austrian Jewish Community of 1938—Vienna alone counted more than 200,000—was reduced to around 4,500 during the Second World War, with approximately 65,000 Jewish Austrians killed in the Holocaust and 130,000 emigrating. The large majority of the current Jewish population are post-war immigrants, particularly from eastern Europe and central Asia (including Bukharan Jews). Buddhism was legally recognised as a religion in Austria in 1983.
According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,
- 54% of Austrian citizens responded that "they believe there is a God".
- 34% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force".
- 8% answered that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force".
While northern and central Germany was the origin of the Reformation, Austria and Bavaria were the heart of the Counter-Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the absolute monarchy of Habsburg imposed a strict regime to restore Catholicism's power and influence among Austrians. The Habsburgs for a long time viewed themselves as the vanguard of Catholicism and all other confessions and religions were repressed.
In 1775, Maria Theresa gave official permission to the Mechistarist Congregation of the Armenian Catholic Church to settle in the Habsburg Empire.
In 1781, in the era of Austrian enlightenment, Emperor Joseph II issued a Patent of Tolerance for Austria that allowed other confessions a limited freedom of worship. Religious freedom was declared a constitutional right in Cisleithania after the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich in 1867 thus paying tribute to the fact that the monarchy was home of numerous religions beside Roman Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Christians (Austria neighboured the Ottoman Empire for centuries), Calvinist, Lutheran Protestants and Jews. In 1912, after the annexation of Bosnia Hercegovina in 1908, Islam was officially recognised in Austria.
Austria remained largely influenced by Catholicism. After 1918, First Republic Catholic leaders such as Theodor Innitzer and Ignaz Seipel took leading positions within or close to Austria's government and increased their influence during the time of the Austrofascism; Catholicism was treated much like a state religion by Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. Although Catholic (and Protestant) leaders initially welcomed the Germans in 1938 during the Anschluss of Austria into Germany, Austrian Catholicism stopped its supportof Nazism later on and many former religious public figures became involved with the resistance during the Third Reich. After the end of World War II in 1945, a stricter secularism was imposed in Austria, and religious influence on politics declined.
Read more about this topic: Austrian Architecture, Demographics
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“A strong argument for the religion of Christ is this—that offences against Charity are about the only ones which men on their death-beds can be made—not to understand—but to feel—as crime.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1845)
“I am no lover of pompous title, but only desire that my name may be recorded in a line or two, which shall briefly express my name, my virginity, the years of my reign, the reformation of religion under it, and my preservation of peace.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the world-old, world-wide religio of amulets and holy places and priestcraft. Protestantism, in its corresponding decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes. Catholicism is accused of being too much like all the other religions; Protestantism of being insufficiently like a religion at all. Hence Plato, with his transcendent Forms, is the doctor of Protestants; Aristotle, with his immanent Forms, the doctor of Catholics.”
—C.S. (Clive Staples)