what's the main religion in Austria?
Religion in Austria
Catholicism is the largest religion in Austria, representing 57.9% of the total population in 2017. The Catholic Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Wien, Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. Schönborn belongs to the Central European noble family of Schönborn. Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled "Primus Germaniae" (Primate of Germany).
Away from Rome!
Since the time of Counterreformation among the Habsburgs, Austria was an almost exclusively Roman Catholic country. The Protestants only formed a vanishing minority. Only since emperor Joseph II’s enactment of the Patent of Tolerance in 1781, the exercise of religion was granted again to Reformed Christians and Lutherans. After the foundation of the German Reich in 1871, causing the “lesser German solution”, that is the unification of Germany under the control of Prussia excluding Austria, many Austrians still remained devoted to “Greater German ideas”. The German Nationals strived for a close political connection to the German Reich, and partially even aimed at complete dissolution of the monarchy of the Habsburgs and the annexation of the parts that were populated by the Germans to the German Reich. One of the leading advocates of this political direction was Georg Ritter von Schönerer. In the program of Linz in 1882, the German Nationals established the slogan “not liberal, not clerical, but national”, and opposed to the Jews, as well as to the political and societal influence of the Roman Catholic Church.
Antisemitism in contemporary Austria
Today the Jewish community of Austria consists of about 8,000 persons. The ‘Jewish Faith’ community is the fifth largest recognized religious community in Austria with the status of a corporation under public law. Nevertheless, antisemitism in contemporary Austria seems to focus more on diffused and traditional stereotypes than on acts of physical aggression. It is a main ideological component of most extreme right-wing groups and their publications in Austria. Extreme rightist and neo-Nazi groups have intensified their activities since 2000, encouraged by the FPÖ electoral success in March 1999. During the first years of the 21st century, themes directly concerned with the National Socialist past have been repeatedly debated in the public sphere: demonstrations were held against the Wehrmacht exhibition, there was controversy regarding a Holocaust memorial that was officially opened in 2000 and the question of restitution.
Austria – the Nazis' first victim
For the Second Republic to survive meant to make Austrians realize their own national identity, that only was to create. As far back as the 1940s, a new, own history of Austria had been urgently composed to satisfy this purpose: it introduced into existence a special Austrian nation that differed from the German one. Hero's pantheon of this history was made of people that had no connection with Germany within the 20th century, i.e. Leopold the Glorious or Andreas Hofer. In 1946 the 950-year anniversary of the ancient name of Austria () was right on the button. As Austrians formed from a set of ancient nations then, according to Austrian historians, they were not Germans genetically Religion was also different: Austrians are mainly Catholics, Germans – Protestants. The consensual opinion of Austrian scientists stated that a common language could not be the determining factor.
Religion in Switzerland
Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland, its presence going back to the Roman era. Since the 16th century, Switzerland has been traditionally divided into Roman Catholic and Reformed confessions. 
However, adherence to Christian churches has declined considerably since the late 20th century, from close to 94% in 1980 to about 66% as of 2017. Furthermore notable is the significant difference in church adherence between Swiss citizens (71%) and foreign nationals (50%) in 2017.
Religion in Austria
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 overwhelmingly Lutheran (3.4%), with a small Reformed community (0.1%). New arriving Protestant churches are growing in membership, especially Evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals, a study from the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences found that there were an estimate of 412,423 Protestants of all types in Austria in 2016.
New Zealand
Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although its society is among the most secular in the world. In the 2013 census, 55.0% of the population identified with one or more religions, including 49.0% identifying as Christians. Another 41.9% indicated that they had no religion. The main Christian denominations are, by number of adherents, Roman Catholicism (12.6%), Anglicanism (11.8%), Presbyterianism (8.5%) and "Christian not further defined" (i.e. people identifying as Christian but not stating the denomination, 5.5%). The Māori-based Ringatū and Rātana religions (1.4%) are also Christian in origin. Immigration and demographic change in recent decades has contributed to the growth of minority religions, such as Hinduism (2.1%), Buddhism (1.5%), Islam (1.2%) and Sikhism (0.5%). The Auckland Region exhibited the greatest religious diversity.
Freedom of religion in Austria
Relations among the 13 officially recognized religious societies are generally amicable. Fourteen Christian churches, among them the Roman Catholic Church, various Protestant confessions, and eight Orthodox and old-oriental churches were engaged in a dialogue in the framework of the Ecumenical Council of Austrian Churches. The Baptists and the Salvation Army have observer status in the Council. The international Catholic organization Pro Oriente, which promotes a dialogue with the Orthodox churches, was also active in the country.
Islam in Austria
The last census in Austria that collected data on religion was in 2001. That census found that there were 338,988 Muslims in the country, making up 4.2% of the population. Statistics Austria estimated in 2009 that 515,914 Muslims lived in Austria. Work by Ednan Aslan and Erol Yıldız that used data from the 2009 Statistics Austria report estimated that 573,876 Muslims lived in Austria in 2012, making up 6.8% of the population.
Religion in Austria
Hinduism is a minority 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.
Demographics of Austria
350,000 ethnic Turks (including a minority of Turkish Kurds) currently live in Austria. At about 3% of the total population, they make up the biggest single ethnic minority in Austria.In 2001, about 74% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Austrian Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, 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 2016 from the Austrian Roman Catholic church lists 5,162,622 members, or 58.8% of the total Austrian population. Sunday church attendance was 605,828 or 7% of the total Austrian population in 2015. The Lutheran church also recorded a loss of 74,421 adherents between 2001 and 2016.
Religion in Nazi Germany
In 1933, 5 years prior to the annexation of Austria into Germany, the population of Germany was approximately 67% Protestant and 33% Catholic, while the Jewish population was less than 1%. A census in May 1939, six years into the Nazi era and after the annexation of mostly Catholic Austria and mostly Catholic Czechoslovakia into Germany, indicates that 54% considered themselves Protestant, 40% Catholic, 3.5% self-identified as "gottgläubig" (lit. "believing in God", often described as predominately creationist and deistic), and 1.5% as "atheist".
Religion in Austria
The Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences estimated in a study published in August 2017 the religious affiliation of Austria and Vienna as of 2016, and then they projected the situation to 2046, showing different immigration scenarios. In order to do this, the 2016 population has been reconstructed by applying projection techniques and using the information collected in the 2001 census as basis, and taking into account components of population change, namely migration, fertility, mortality, and religious mobility between 2001 and 2015. The results were the following:
Since the second half of the 20th century, the number of churchgoers and people identifying as Catholics and Protestants has dropped (cf. tables).
Austrian Student Mission
The Austrian student mission (ÖSM Österreichische Studentenmission - Christen an der Uni) is a group of students from various churches, who wants to make Jesus known at the universities in Austria. Currently there are 6 groups in almost every major university in Austria. The organisation is the Austrian division of the worldwide umbrella organisation International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), currently covering 160 evangelical Christian student movements in over 140 countries.
Religion in Australia
Religion in Australia is diverse. Section 116 of the Constitution of Australia of 1901 prohibits the Commonwealth government from establishing a church or interfering with the freedom of religion. In an optional question on the 2016 Census, 52.2% of the Australian population declared some variety of Christianity. Historically the percentage was far higher; now, the religious landscape of Australia is changing and diversifying. In 2016, 30.1% of Australians stated "no religion" and a further 9.6% chose not to answer the question. Other faiths include Muslims (2.6%), Buddhists (2.4%), Hindus (1.9%), Sikhs (0.5%), and Jews (0.4%).As per the 2016 Census, Sikhism is the fastest growing religion in Australia which showed a 74% increase from the 2011 census followed by Hinduism(60% increase) and Irreligion(48% increase).
Freedom of religion in Austria
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.
Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia
The ECAV is the second largest church in Slovakia (c. 7% of population). It considers the Gospel as contained in the Bible to be the source of faith in the triune God and the rule for life. Jesus is regarded as the head of the Church and it functions on the basis of the equality of God’s children. The Augsburg Confession is recognized as a correct explanation of central issues of faith.
Buddhism in Austria
Vienna
Victoria (Australia)
About 61.1% of Victorians describe themselves as Christian. Roman Catholics form the single largest religious group in the state with 26.7% of the Victorian population, followed by Anglicans and members of the Uniting Church. Buddhism is the state's largest non-Christian religion, with 168,637 members as of the most recent census. Victoria is also home of 152,775 Muslims and 45,150 Jews. Hinduism is the fastest growing religion. Around 20% of Victorians claim no religion. Amongst those who declare a religious affiliation, church attendance is low.
Weissensee (Carinthia)
According to a 2001 survey, the Weissensee district had 788 inhabitants of which 97.2% had Austrian citizenship. 73.6% of those surveyed claimed to be members of the evangelical church, 22% claimed to be members of the Roman-Catholic church, and 1% were of Islamic faith. 3.4% claimed not to belong to a religious denomination.
Austria
The 2001 census report indicated that about 12% of the population declared that they have no religion; according to ecclesiastical information this share had grown to 20% by 2015. Of the remaining people, around 340,000 were registered as members of various Muslim communities in 2001, mainly due to the influx from Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The number of Muslims has doubled in 15 years to 700,000 in 2016. 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.
Islam in Austria
In 2013, Austria granted the status of a recognized religious community to Alevism.
History of the Jews in Austria
The biggest Jewish presence in Austria today is in its capital Vienna, consisting of synagogues, a Jewish retirement home, the Jewish Museum (founded in 1993), and different community institutions. Austrian Jews are of many different sects, including Haredi and Reform Jews. The Jewish community also has many activities arranged by the Chabad movement, which is in charge of managing kindergartens, schools, a community center and even a university. There are also active branches of the Bnei Akiva and the Hashomer Hatzair youth movements. Today, the biggest minority among the Jewish community in Vienna originates from Georgia, and the second biggest Jewish minority originates from Bukhara, each with separate synagogues and a large community center called "The Spanish center".
Christian Party of Austria
The Christian Party of Austria (, CPÖ; formerly the Christians – ) is a minor political party in Austria, founded on October 15, 2005.
Religion in Estonia
The religious population is predominantly Christian and includes followers of 90 affiliations, most prominently of the religions is Orthodox Christians and Lutheran Christians. According to Ringo Ringvee, "religion has never played an important role on the political or ideological battlefield" and that the "tendencies that prevailed in the late 1930s for closer relations between the state and Lutheran church were ended with the Soviet occupation in 1940". He further states that "the chain of religious traditions was broken in most families" under the Soviet policy of state atheism. Before the Second World War, Estonia was approximately 80 per cent Protestant; overwhelmingly Lutheran.
Languages of Austria
The main native language of Austria outside Vorarlberg is Austro-Bavarian, whose many regionally different dialects are spoken. The north-eastern parts of Austria (with the capital Vienna) speak Central Austro-Bavarian dialects and the southern parts Southern Austro-Bavarian dialects. Austro-Bavarian differs a lot from Standard German, making it very difficult for German speakers of different regions to understand the native population. Austro-Bavarian has no official orthography, but there are literary efforts (), especially in poems, to depict the sound of the pronunciation in the spelling. Other words can only be heard while visiting particular regions of Austria and Bavaria that are only rarely used in Standard German, including "Griaß God" (literally: "greet god" = may god greet you), and "Servus/Servas" (at your service) as greeting phrases, or are denoted as strictly dialectal, like "Pfiat di" (literally: "watch over you [god]" = may God watch over you) with the meaning of "goodbye". This particular example also shows that the Austro-Bavarian grammar differs from Standard German.
Religion in Germany
Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, comprising an estimated 57% of the country's population in 2017. The second largest religion in Germany is Islam, with around 4 million adherents in 2016 (5% of the population). Smaller religious groups include Buddhism (0.2%), Judaism (0.1%), Hinduism (0.1%) and others (0.4%). About 36–37% of the country's population are not affiliated with any church or religion, and a minority adhere to other religions.
Religion in Liechtenstein
The Catholic Church, as written in the Constitution of Liechtenstein, is the official state religion of Liechtenstein. The constitution declares that the Catholic Church is "the State Church and as such shall enjoy the full protection of the State." Liechtenstein offers protection to adherents of all religious beliefs, and considers the "religious interests of the people" a priority of the government. In Liechtenstein schools, although exceptions are allowed, religious education in Catholicism or Protestantism is legally required. Tax exemption is granted by the government to religious organizations. According to the Pew Research Center, social conflict caused by religious hostilities is ranked low in Liechtenstein, and so is the amount of government restriction on the practice of religion.
Church tax
Every recognized religious group in Austria can collect church tax at a rate of 1.1%, though currently only the Catholic Church makes use of that opportunity. Church tax is compulsory for Catholics in Austria. This tax was introduced by Adolf Hitler in 1939. After World War II, the tax was retained in order to keep the Church independent of political powers.
Religion in Germany
German major religious bodies publish yearly updated records of their membership. According to these, Christianity is the largest religious group in Germany, with around 48 million adherents (~58.5%) in 2016 of whom 23.6 million are Catholics (28.6%) and 21.9 million are Protestants (26.6%). Orthodox Christianity has 1.5 to 2.0 million members or ~2% of the population. Other minor Christian religions counted together have approximately 1.3 million members, forming 1–1.5% of the total population.
Islam in Austria
Despite a large amount of Balkan Muslims in the country, most Muslim organizations in Austria are dominated by Turks. The largest Muslim organization in the country is the "Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich" (Community of Muslim believers in Austria). The "Glaubensgemeinschaft" has two constituent members, the Austrian Turkish Islamic Union and the Islamic Federation. Muslim Youth Austria is part of the "Bundesjugendvertretung" (National Youth Representation) mainly focuses on interfaith dialogue with Catholics, Jews, Buddhists and other religious groups in the country. Muslim Youth Austria also campaigns against xenophobia and racism. Alevis in Austria have set up community groups such as the "Islamische Alevitische Glaubensgemeinschaft" (Muslim Alevi Community in Austria) and the "Föderation der Aleviten Gemeinden in Österreich" (Federation of Alevi Communities in Austria).
Religion in Switzerland
A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017 found that 75% of Swiss adult population consider themselves Christians when asking about their current religion (irrespective of whether they are officially members of a particular Christian church by paying church tax). Nonetheless the same survey shows that only 27% of Christians in Switzerland attend church at least monthly, while the majority of Christians seldom go to church. 4% of people questioned state they have a non-Christian religion. 21% are of no religion, and nearly half of them consider themselves Atheists.
Reformation
Austria followed the same pattern of the German-speaking states within the Holy Roman Empire, and Lutheranism became the main Protestant confession among its population. Lutheranism gained a significant following in Austria which was concentrated in the eastern half of present-day Austria, while Calvinism was less successful. Eventually the adoption of the Counter-Reformation reversed the trend.
Austria
In 2001, about 74% of Austria's population were registered as Roman Catholic, while about 5% considered themselves Protestants. Austrian Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, 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 2018 from the Austrian Roman Catholic Church list 5,050,000 members, or 56.9% of the total Austrian population. Sunday church attendance was 605,828 or 7% of the total Austrian population in 2015. The Lutheran church also recorded a loss of 74,421 adherents between 2001 and 2016.
Culture of Austria
About 12% of the population does not belong to any church or religious community.
Religion in Romania
Romania is a secular state, and it has no state religion. Romania is one of the most religious countries in the European Union and a majority of the country's citizens are Christian. The Romanian state officially recognizes 18 religions and denominations. 81.04% of the country's stable population identified as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the 2011 census (see also: History of Christianity in Romania). Other Christian denominations include the Catholic Church (both Latin Catholicism (4.33%) and Greek Catholicism (0.75%–3.3%)), Calvinism (2.99%), and Pentecostal denominations (1.80%). This amounts to approximately 92% of the population identifying as Christian. Romania also has a small but historically significant Muslim minority, concentrated in Northern Dobruja, who are mostly of Crimean Tatar and Turkish ethnicity and number around 44,000 people. According to the 2011 census data, there are also approximately 3,500 Jews, around 21,000 atheists and about 19,000 people not identifying with any religion. The 2011 census numbers are based on a stable population of 20,121,641 people and exclude a portion of about 6% due to unavailable data.
Germany
According to the 2011 German Census, Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, claiming 66.8% of the total population. Relative to the whole population, 31.7% declared themselves as Protestants, including members of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) (30.8%) and the free churches () (0.9%), and 31.2% declared themselves as Roman Catholics. Orthodox believers constituted 1.3%. Other religions accounted for 2.7%. According to the most recent data from 2016, the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church claimed respectively 28.5% and 27.5% of the population. Both large churches have lost significant numbers of adherents in recent years.
Vienna
According to the 2001 census, 49.2% of Viennese were Roman Catholics, while 25.7% were of no religion, 7.8% were Muslim, 6.0% were members of an Orthodox denomination, 4.7% were Protestant (mostly Lutheran), 0.5% were Jewish and 6.3% were either of other religions or did not reply. By 2011 the shares of religious bodies had significantly changed:
Austria
Standard Austrian German is Austria's official language, though used primarily just in education, publications, announcements and websites. It is mostly identical to the Standard German of Germany but with some vocabulary differences. This Standard German language is used in formal contexts across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as well as among those with significant German-speaking minorities: Italy, Belgium and Denmark. However, the common spoken language of Austria is not the Standard German taught in schools but Austro-Bavarian: a group of Upper German local dialects with varying degrees of difficulty being understood by each other as well as by speakers of non-Austrian German dialects. Taken as a collective whole, German languages or dialects are thus spoken natively by 88.6% of the population, which includes the 2.5% German-born citizens who reside in Austria, followed by Turkish (2.28%), Serbian (2.21%), Croatian (1.63%), English (0.73%), Hungarian (0.51%), Bosnian (0.43%), Polish (0.35%), Albanian (0.35%), Slovenian (0.31%), Czech (0.22%), Arabic (0.22%), and Romanian (0.21%).
Islam in Austria
In an August 2017 survey by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation, 42% of Austrian Muslims said they were "highly religious" and 52% were "moderately religious."
Tourism in Austria
Visits to Austria mostly include trips to Vienna with its Cathedral, its "Heurigen" (wine pubs) and romantic Waltz music events. Worth a visit are Salzburg, birthplace of Mozart, Innsbruck, capital of Tyrol surrounded by the Alps, Linz, capital of Upper Austria with the largest Cathedral of Austria and modern cultural highlights, and the Danube valley with its vineyards, for example the Wachau or Dunkelsteinerwald, which are between Melk and Krems. In the western part of the country the province Vorarlberg reaches the Lake Constance, in the eastern part Neusiedler See. The three most visited landmarks in Austria are Schönbrunn Palace (2,590,000 visitors per year), Tiergarten Schönbrunn (2,453,987 visitors) and Mariazell Basilica (1,500,000 visitors).
Catholic Church in Austria
For more than 50 years, however, the proportion of Catholics has discreased, primarily due to secularization and migration (from 89 % in 1961 to 75% in 2001). The number of Sunday churchgoers was around 6.8 percent (as percentage of the total Austrian population that is 594,524 churchgoers out of a total population of 8,772,865 in 2016).
Religion in Austria
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches grew over the last decades due to the coming of South Slavic immigrants from the Balkans to Austria. The largest group of Eastern Orthodox in Austria are Serbs. The Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian 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.
Buddhism in Austria
As in most European 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 or Japanese appearance. The latest development has been the establishment of a “Buddhist Cemetery” around a stupa-like building for funeral ceremonies at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Catholic Church in Austria
Although Austria has no primate, the archbishop of Salzburg is titled "Primus Germaniae" (Primate of Germany).
The organization Call to Disobedience ("Aufruf zum Ungehorsam" in German) is an Austrian movement mainly composed of dissident Catholic priests which started in 2006. The movement claims the support of the majority of Austrian Catholic priests and favors ordination of women, married and non-celibate priesthood, allowing Holy Communion to remarried divorcees and non-Catholics which disagrees with teachings of the Catholic Magisterium. The group also believes the way the Church is governed needs reform.
Religion in Liechtenstein
The religion in Liechtenstein is predominantly Catholic, with a minority of Protestants, non-adherents, and adherents of other religions. Liechtenstein has a small Muslim population, composed mainly of immigrants from countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Turkey.
Freedom of religion in Austria
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.
German Australians
According to census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2004, German Australians are, by religion, 21.7 per cent Catholic, 16.5 per cent Anglican, 32.8 per cent Other Christian, 4.2 Other Religions and 24.8 No Religion.
Vorarlberg
78% of the population are Roman Catholic, which puts Vorarlberg in line with the national Austrian average of 73.6%. The second-largest denomination, with a share of 8.4%, is Islam, mostly Turks. 7,817 (or 2.2%) of Vorarlberg's inhabitants are Protestants.
Austrian Student Mission
The ÖSM is led by Christian students from a wide variety of backgrounds. They are united in a common desire to "make Jesus Christ known to students in Austria". Each group is also supported by a travel secretary, whose main tasks are encouragement and teaching of various biblical subjects. The ÖSM is not a church and does not want to compete with them, in fact it encourages every member to be a member of a local church.
Freedom of religion in Austria
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.
Freedom of religion in Austria
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.
Religion in Austria
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 about 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.
Austrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party (; ÖVP) is a Christian-democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was founded immediately following the reestablishment of the Republic of Austria in 1945 and since then has been one of the two largest Austrian political parties with the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ). In federal governance, the ÖVP has spent most of the postwar era in a grand coalition with the SPÖ. Most recently, it has been junior partner in a coalition government with the SPÖ since 2007. However, the ÖVP won the 2017 election, having the greatest number of seats and formed a coalition with the national-conservative Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Its chairman Sebastian Kurz is the youngest Chancellor in Austrian history.
Hinduism in Austria
Hinduism is a minority religion in Austria,constituting about 0.15% of the population of Austria. Hinduism is not one of the 16 recognised religion in Austria.The Austrian law allows religious groups not recognized as societies to seek official status 
as confessional communities with the Office for Religious Affairs.Hinduism is one of the eight confessional 
communities in Austria.However the Sahaja Yoga and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness are categorised as associations, not as a confessional community.
Islam in Austria
An August 2017 survey by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation found that among Austrian Muslims, 64% were Sunni and 4% were Shia. Medien-Servicestelle Neue Österreicher estimated in 2010 that 10-20% of Austrian Muslims were Alevi. Of the 300 Ahmadi Muslims in Austria, about one third reside in Vienna.
Austria
Austria is a federal republic with a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federated states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.8 million, is Vienna. Other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is consistently ranked as one of the richest countries in the world by per capita GDP terms. The country has developed a high standard of living and in 2018 was ranked 20th in the world for its Human Development Index. The republic declared its perpetual neutrality in foreign political affairs in 1955. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, and is a founder of the OECD. Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999.
Australia
Australia has no state religion; Section 116 of the Australian Constitution prohibits the federal government from making any law to establish any religion, impose any religious observance, or prohibit the free exercise of any religion. In the 2016 census, 54.6% of Australians were counted as Christian, including 22.6% as Roman Catholic and 13.3% as Anglican; 30.1% of the population reported having "no religion"; 7.3% identify with non-Christian religions, the largest of these being Islam (2.6%), followed by Buddhism (2.5%), Hinduism (1.9%), Sikhism (0.6%) and Judaism (0.4%). The remaining 9.6% of the population did not provide an adequate answer. Those who reported having no religion increased conspicuously from 19% in 2006 to 30% in 2016. The largest change was between 2011 (22%) and 2016 (30.1%), when a further 2.2 million people reported having no religion.
Culture of Uruguay
Uruguay is South America's most secular country, meaning the importance of religion doesn't really apply to the majority of citizens. It has no official religion and church and state are separate. Religious freedom is guaranteed. The largest religion in Uruguay are the Roman Catholics, making about 66% of the population. Most Uruguayans baptize their children and marry in churches, but don't attend church that often. There is an estimated amount of 20,000 Jews in Uruguay, making it one of the most largest Jewish communities in South America and in the world. Most Jews in Uruguay are Sephardi Jews, followed by Ashkenazim, Mizrahim, and Italkim. During European migration to South America, many German Jews and Italian Jews migrated to Uruguay. There are also several Evangelical Protestant groups, making 2% of the Uruguayan population. Macumba and Umbanda, religions of Afro-Brazilian origin, are currently the fastest-growing religions in Uruguay. There are a few Christian missionary organizations in Uruguay, such as Serve the City (Run by Matthew Daniels). There is also a number of Jehovah's Witnesses, with 11,825 publishers and 156 congregations located within the country.
Freedom of religion in Austria
The officially recognized religious societies are:
Religion in Austria
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 Catholicism such as Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Russian, and Bulgarian Orthodox Christians (Austria neighboured the Ottoman Empire for centuries), both Calvinist and Lutheran Protestants, and Jews. In 1912, after the annexation of Bosnia Hercegovina in 1908, Islam was officially recognised in Austria.
Languages of Austria
The languages of Austria include German, the official language and "lingua franca"; Austro-Bavarian, the main dialect outside Vorarlberg; Alemannic, the main dialect in Vorarlberg; and several minority languages.
Old Catholic Church of Austria
The Old Catholic Church of Austria () is the Austrian member church of the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches. It was nationally recognized in 1877, despite objections of the imperial dynasty and the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the formally pro-Vatican I state of Austria-Hungary.
Evangelical Church in Germany
Protestantism is the major religion in Northern, Eastern and Middle Germany, with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme northwest and Lippe, the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and the United branch in Middle and Western Germany. While the majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Roman Catholic, some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and the government region of Stuttgart. The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member church of the EKD. With 25,100,727 members in 2006, around 30 percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD. Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a million people attending a service on Sunday.
Demographics of Albania
The main religions of Albania are as of the 2011 Census, Islam 58.79%, Roman Catholicism 10.02, Eastern Orthodoxy 6.75%, Bektashi 2.09%, Evangelism 0.14%, Atheism 2.50%, 5.50% Nondenominational and 16.30% Others. Religious observance and practice is generally lax and polls have shown that, compared to the populations of other countries, few Albanians consider religion to be a dominant factor in their lives. Today, religion plays an important role in the lives of only 39% of Albanians. In addition, Albania is ranked among the least religious countries in the world.
Demographics of Croatia
The main religions of Croatia are Roman Catholicism 86.28%, Eastern Orthodoxy 4.44%, Protestantism 0.34%, other Christianity 0.30%, and Islam 1.47%. In the Eurostat Eurobarometer Poll of 2005, 67% of the population of Croatia responded that "they believe there is a God" and 7% said they do not believe "there is any sort of spirit, God, or life force", while 25% expressed a belief in "some sort of spirit or life force". In a 2009 Gallup poll, 70% answered affirmatively when asked "Is religion an important part of your daily life?" Significantly, a 2008 Gallup survey of the Balkans indicated church and religious organisations as the most trusted institutions in the country. The survey revealed that 62% of the respondents assigned "a lot" or "some" trust to those institutions, ranking them ahead of all types of governmental, international or non-governmental institutions.
Islam in Austria
Austrian muslims show high fundamental religious values and hostility against other groups according to a study that was published by WZB Berlin Social Science Center in 2013. Different approval rates also persisted after factors such as education, income, marital status, age and gender were taken into account, the study concluded that the reason is to some extent the religion.
Demographics of Uruguay
Uruguay has no official religion, church and state are officially separated, and religious freedom is guaranteed. A 2008 survey by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística of Uruguay gave Catholicism as the main religion, with 45.7% of the population, 9.0% are non-Catholic Christians, 0.6% are Animists or Umbandists (an Afro-Brazilian religion) and 0.4% Jewish. 30.1% reported believing in a god, but not belonging to any religion, while 14% were Atheist or Agnostic. Among the sizeable Armenian community in Montevideo the dominant religion is Christianity, specifically Armenian Apostolic.
Religion in Hungary
Religion in Hungary has been dominated by forms of Christianity for centuries. According to the 2011 census, 54.2% of the Hungarians declared to believe in Christianity, of whom 38.9% were Catholics (for the majority following the Roman rite, and a minority the Greek rite), 13.8% were Protestants (11.6% were Calvinists and 2.2% were Lutherans), 0.1% were Orthodox Christians, and 1.3% were members of other Christian groups. At the same time, 27.2% of the Hungarians did not declare a religious affiliation, 16.7% declared explicitly to be not religious and 1.5% atheists. Minority religions practised in Hungary include Buddhism (0.1% in 2011), Islam and Judaism (0.1% in 2011).
Eastern Orthodoxy by country
Significant minorities, making up between 1 and 31 per cent of the population, are present in several European countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina (31%), Latvia (18%), Albania (7%), Lithuania (4%), Croatia (4%), Slovenia (2%), and Finland (1.5%). In Asia, around the former USSR, Eastern Orthodoxy constitutes the dominant religion in northern Kazakhstan, representing 23.9%, of the population of the region, and is also a significant minority in Kyrgyzstan (17%), Turkmenistan (5%), Uzbekistan (5%), Azerbaijan (2%), and Tajikistan (1%). In Lebanon, 8% are Eastern Orthodox. In Syria, 5-8% were Eastern Orthodox prior to the war, and Eastern Orthodox Christians represent between 0.5% and 2.5% in Palestine, and over 1% in Jordan. Recent immigration and missionary activity raised the numbers of the Eastern Orthodox community in Catholic and Protestant countries such as Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Switzerland to roughly 2% of the population in each.
Governmental lists of cults and sects
The Austrian government does not always distinguish sects in Austria as a separate group. Rather, religious groups are divided into three legal categories: officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. In 2010, the most recent year for which sects were officially distinguished in Austria, the groups included the Church of Scientology, the Unification Church, the Divine Light Mission, Eckankar, Hare Krishna, Osho movement, Sahaja Yoga, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Transcendental Meditation, Fiat Lux, Universal Life, and The Family International.
Demographics of Austria
The majority of Austrians (73.6%) in the 2001 census reported that they were Roman Catholic. Protestants made up a further 4.7% of the population and Muslims 4.2%. 12% of respondents said that they were not religious.
Religion in Slovenia
The dominant religion in Slovenia is Christianity, primarily the Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the country. Other Christian groups having significant followings in the country include Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism (Lutheranism). Islam (2.4%). Judaism and Hinduism are small minorities in Slovenia. About 10% of the population are either agnostic or atheist.
Weggis
Formerly, all citizens were members of the Roman Catholic Church. This has been changed by people leaving the church, and by immigration from other parts of Switzerland, and from foreign countries. Today () the religious composition of the population is as follows. 59.98% are Roman Catholic, 16.7% are Protestant, and 1.66% are Orthodox Christians; 10.01% are atheist, 1.99% are Muslim and 8.96% provided no information about their beliefs. Among the people who provided no data about their beliefs, some were probably Buddhist Chinese. The Chinese also make up the most important part of the atheist group. The Orthodox Christians and Muslims are almost entirely people from the former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and Bosnia)
Central Europe
Central European countries are mostly Roman Catholic (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) or mixed Catholic and Protestant, (Germany and Switzerland). Large Protestant groups include Lutheran and Calvinist. Significant populations of Eastern Catholicism and Old Catholicism are also prevalent throughout Central Europe. Central Europe has been a centre of Protestantism in the past; however, it has been mostly eradicated by the Counterreformation. The Czech Republic (Bohemia) was historically the first Protestant country, then violently recatholised, and now overwhelmingly non-religious, nevertheless the largest number of religious people are Catholic (10.3%). Romania and Serbia are mostly Eastern Orthodox with significant Protestant and Catholic minorities.
Ordinariate for Byzantine-rite Catholics in Austria
The diocese extends to all the faithful who live in Austria and belong to the Byzantine rite. Its episcopal see is the St. Barbara church, in Vienna (Wien), capital of Austria.
Military Ordinariate of Austria
The Military Ordinariate of Austria (, ) is a military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church.
Uruguay
Uruguay has no official religion; church and state are officially separated, and religious freedom is guaranteed. A 2008 survey by the INE of Uruguay showed Catholicism as the main religion, with 45.7% of the population; 9.0% are non-Catholic Christians, 0.6% are Animists or Umbandists (an Afro-Brazilian religion), and 0.4% Jewish. 30.1% reported believing in a god, but not belonging to any religion, while 14% were atheist or agnostic. Among the sizeable Armenian community in Montevideo, the dominant religion is Christianity, specifically Armenian Apostolic.
Religion in the Czech Republic
The Catholic Church was the main form of Christianity historically practised by the Czechs, after their forced conversion under the Habsburgs, and throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Catholicism was still the professed religion of 96.5% of the Czechs in 1910. A decline in the number of Czech Catholics began after World War I and the breakup of Austria-Hungary due to a popular anti-Austrian and anticlerical mass movement. During the Czechoslovak unification under a communist regime, most of the properties of the Church were confiscated by the government, although some were later returned. After the communist regime fell, 39.0% of Czechs were found to be Catholic in 1991, but the faith has continued to rapidly decline since. As of 2011 only 10.5% of the Czechs considered themselves Catholic, which is about the same as in Protestant-majority England.
Religion in Austria
Buddhism is a legally recognized religion in Austria and it is followed by thousands of people. Although still small in absolute numbers (10,402 at the 2001 census), 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 from China and Vietnam), while a considerable number of them are foreign nationals.
Catholic Church in Austria
The Catholic Church in Austria is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope in Rome. The Church's governing body in Austria is the Austrian Conference of Catholic Bishops, made up of the hierarchy of the two archbishops (Vienna and Salzburg), the bishops and the abbot of territorial abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau. Nevertheless, each bishop is independent in his own diocese, answerable only to the Pope. The current president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. The Austrian church is the largest Christian Confession of Austria, with 5.11 million members (57.9 % of the total Austrian population.).
Culture of Austria
As part of its historic cultural heritage of being a multinational state for centuries (Habsburg Monarchy, Austrian Empire, later Austria-Hungary), modern Austria is not entirely homogenously German-speaking, but has within its borders, albeit small, autochthonous minorities of different native tongue: Hungarian is the most widely spoken of the recognized minority languages spoken in Austria (mostly in Burgenland, where it is an official language, and in Vienna; about 40,000 speakers (0.5% of the Austrian population)). Slovene (24,000) has the same status in Carinthia and Styria. The same is true for Burgenland Croatian (19,000), a variant of Croatian spoken in Burgenland. Furthermore, Czech (18,000), Slovak (10,000) and Romani (6,000) are recognized on the basis of minority rights protection.
Freedom of religion by country
Currently, Austria recognizes twelve religions. In addition to various Christian denominations including Jehovah's Witnesses, these include Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. To date, Austria has not granted full recognition to several newer and allegedly controversial religions such as the Church of Scientology. Some newer religious groups, however, have applied under the 1998 Act and thereby attained the preliminary status of communities of believers.
Islam in Austria
The majority of Muslims in Austria are Austrian citizens. The most common foreign citizenships among Muslims in Austria are Turkish (21.2%), Bosnian (10.1%), Kosovar (6.7%), Montenegrin (6.7%), and Serbian (6.7%).
Religion in Austria
In 1775, Maria Theresa gave official permission to the Mechitarist Congregation of the Armenian Catholic Church to settle in the Habsburg Empire.
Islam in Austria
Almost 216,345 Austrian Muslims (38%) live in the capital, Vienna. Roughly 30% of Muslims live in northern state outside of Vienna and an equal amount (30%) live in the southern states of Austria.
Religion in the European Union
Religion in the European Union is diverse. The largest religion in the EU is Christianity, which accounts for 71.6% of EU population. Smaller groups include those of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and some East Asian religions, most concentrated in Germany, Britain and France. Also present are revival movements of pre-Christianity European folk religions including Heathenism, Rodnovery, Romuva, and Druidry.
Switzerland
Christianity is the predominant religion of Switzerland (about 68% of resident population in 2016 and 75% of Swiss citizens), divided between the Roman Catholic Church (37.2% of the population), the Swiss Reformed Church (25.0%), further Protestant churches (2.2%) and other Christian denominations (1.3%). Immigration has established Islam (5.1%) and Eastern Orthodoxy (around 2%) as sizeable minority religions.
Same-sex marriage in Austria
A Pew Research Center poll, conducted between April and August 2017 and published in May 2018, showed that 72% of Austrians supported same-sex marriage, 25% were opposed and 3% didn't know or refused to answer. When divided by religion, 87% of religiously unaffiliated people, 86% of non-practicing Christians and 42% of church-attending Christians supported same-sex marriage.
Hinduism in Austria
In 1980 the Bengali Bimal Kundu founded the first Hindu religious society in Austria, for Hindus immigrating from the Indian subcontinent. He now runs a small temple, located at a room in the Afro-Asian Institute.Since 1998, the "Hindu Religious Society in Austria" is (hroe) as "state-registered confessional community" official representative for all Hindus. . It is one of eleven religious groups that constitute confessional communities according to the Austrian Law on the Status of Religious Confessional Communities. It is not yet a legally recognised religion, and therefore is not eligible for support from the state, however they may be eligible for this after 20 years of existence.
Buddhism in Austria
Buddhism was officially recognized under Austrian law in 1983. Russia is the only other "European" country to 
recognize Buddhism formally as "native" to its own soil, giving it official status, along with Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Austrian nationalism
Austrian nationalism is the nationalism that asserts that Austrians are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Austrians. Austrian nationalism originally developed as a cultural nationalism that emphasized a Catholic religious identity. This in turn led to its opposition to unification with Protestant-majority Germany, something that was perceived as a potential threat to the Catholic core of Austrian national identity.
Religion in Austria
According to the 2010 Eurobarometer Poll,
based on a limited sample:
Religion in Germany
As of 2016, Christianity with around 48 million members is the largest religion in Germany (~58.5% of the population) Consequently, a majority of the German people belong to a Christian community, although many of them take no active part in church life. About 2% of the population is Orthodox Christian and about 1–1.5% follows other forms of Christianity (including other Protestantisms, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism and others).
Freedom of religion by country
In October 2017, Austria passed a law banning the covering of one's face in public, which has been criticized as Islamophobic and a "criminalization of Muslim women" by various experts due to its effectively banning the usage of burqas and other similar clothing. There have been reports of antisemitism, and fascist sympathizers with connections to the Nazi Germany have held elected office as recently as 2008.
Estonia
The most recent Pew Research Center, found that in 2015, 51% of the population of Estonia declared itself Christians, 45% religiously unaffiliated—a category which includes atheists, agnostics and those who describe their religion as "Nothing in Particular", while 2% belonged to other faiths. The Christians divided between 25% Eastern Orthodox, 20% Lutherans, 5% other Christians and 1% Roman Catholic. While the religiously unaffiliated divided between 9% as atheists, 1% as agnostics and 35% as Nothing in Particular. 
The largest religious denomination in the country was Lutheranism, adhered to by 160,000 Estonians (or 13% of the population) according from 2000 census, principally ethnic Estonians. Other organisations, such as the World Council of Churches, report that there are as many as 265,700 Estonian Lutherans. Additionally, there are between 8,000–9,000 members abroad. But however since 2011 census that Eastern Orthodoxy has surpassed Lutheranism by 16.5% or 176,773 of Estonian population as more native Estonians abandoning Lutheranism to favor without having religion and some they converted to Eastern Orthodoxy.
Freedom of religion in Austria
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.
Religion in Austria
In contrast, due to immigration, the number of Muslims in Austria has increased in recent years, with 4.2% of the population calling themselves Muslim in 2001, up to around 5% to 6.2% in 2010, and to 7.9% in 2016 - represented especially by immigrants from Turkey and the Balkans. Orthodox churches have also grown rapidly (up to 8.8% of the population) in recent years, mainly due to immgration of Serbs from the former Yugoslavia and Romanians. There are also minor communities of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, and other religions in Austria.
Austria
Austria (, ; ), officially the Republic of Austria (, ), is a country of nearly 9 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The territory of Austria covers . The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below , and its highest point is . The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.
Religion in Slovakia
Christianity is the predominant religion in Slovakia. The majority (62%) of Slovaks belong to the Latin Church of Catholicism; with the addition of a further 4% of Greek (Byzantine) Catholics, all Catholics account for 66%. Members of a Protestant denomination, mainly Lutheran or Reformed, account for 9%. Members of other churches, including those non-registered, account for 1.1% of the population. The Eastern Orthodox Christians are mostly found in Ruthenian (Rusyns) areas. The Catholic Church divides the country into 8 dioceses including 3 archdioceses in two different provinces. The Slovak Greek Catholic Church is a Metropolitan sui iuris Church with three Eparchies in Slovakia and one in Canada. Generally about one third of church members regularly attend church services. The religious situation is dramatically different from that in the neighbouring Czech Republic, which is notable for its atheist or irreligious majority.
Islam in Austria
Almost 88% of Austrian Muslims feel closely connected with Austria and more than 62% of Muslims have routine leisure time contact with people of other religions, according to the Bertelsmann survey from August 2017. The same survey was also implemented in Germany and several right-wing german newspapers, including "Die Welt", "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Wirtschaftswoche" have called the results concerning "close connection" superficial and too optimistic, because the study does not contain any information as to whether participants' values are compatible with western values