Religion in Austria
[3] Austria was historically a strongly Catholic country, having been the centre of the Habsburg monarchy (1273–1918) which championed Roman Catholicism.
[4] A few decades after the fall of the Habsburg monarchy at the end of the World War I, and the transformation of Austria into a federal 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 of Vienna.
The Habsburgs imposed a strict regime to restore the influence of the Catholic Church among Austrians and their campaign proved successful.
In 1775, Maria Theresa gave official permission to the Mechitarist 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 to numerous religions besides 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.
[7] The large majority of the current Jewish population are post-war immigrants, particularly from eastern Europe and central Asia (including Bukharan Jews).
Lutheranism was the most successful Protestant confession; that was the case among other German-speaking populations across the Holy Roman Empire and Austria was indeed one of them.
Immigration in more recent years, primarily from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia, has led to an increased number of Muslims and Serbian Orthodox Christians.
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.
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.
Most of Austria's Buddhist temples and centres of practice can be found there; some with a specific Chinese, Vietnamese, Tibetan or Japanese appearance.
Austria has seen a growth of Pagan movements in recent years, especially Druidic (Druidentum), but also Germanic Heathen (Heidentum), Wiccan and Neopagan witchcraft (Hexentum) groups.
