The Catholic Church in Austria saw an increase in Mass attendance, a decline in formal disaffiliation, and a rise in church tax revenue in 2024.
The Austrian bishops’ conference said Sept. 17 that the number of Massgoers “increased significantly” last year.
The Church measures Mass attendance by conducting a headcount on two Sundays in the year, known as Zählsonntage (Counting Sundays).
These typically occur on a Sunday in Lent, in the spring, and on the feast of Christ the King, in the fall.
This two-part count found there were 309,000 worshipers on the first Sunday and 366,000 on the second Sunday in 2022, 321,821 and 347,891 in 2023, and 366,210 and 378,797 in 2024, indicating a steady rise in attendance.
Austria is a landlocked Central European country bordering Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It has a population of around 9 million, roughly half of whom are Catholic.
While the 2024 figures suggest Mass attendance is recovering after a sharp drop caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the numbers remain below pre-pandemic figures, when around half a million people attended Mass.
Among Austria’s dioceses, the Diocese of Sankt Pölten and the neighboring Archdiocese of Vienna saw notable increases in Massgoers last year.
Attendance rose in the Sankt Pölten diocese, led by Bishop Alois Schwarz, from 40,193 and 42,652 in 2023 to 63,520 and 46,179 in 2024. In the Vienna archdiocese, the increase was from 56,906 and 63,157 in 2023 to 78,806 and 84,621 in 2024.
Vienna is currently awaiting a new archbishop following the January 2025 resignation of Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, who led the archdiocese for 30 years.
The new figures also confirmed an ongoing decline in the number of formal Church “exits,” where individuals formally disaffiliate from the Catholic Church.
A total of 71,531 people formally left the Church in Austria in 2024, down from 85,163 in 2023 and 90,975 in 2022.
To formally disaffiliate, an Austrian Catholic must inform local authorities of their wish to leave the Church, while presenting documents such as a baptismal certificate.
The authority forwards the declaration to the diocese and baptismal parish. The process is generally free of charge and can be completed by post, online, or in person.
Catholics who disaffiliate no longer pay church tax, known in Austria as the Kirchenbeitrag (church contribution), which amounts to about 1.1% of annual taxable income.
Austria’s dioceses received 539.4 million euros (around $639 million) via the church tax system in 2024, up from 511 million euros ($605 million) in 2023.
The church contribution is the most important source of funds for dioceses, accounting for 70.6% of their incomes.
The revenue received via the church contribution increased in 2024 despite a decline in the overall number of Catholics in Austria, from 4,638,842 in 2023 to 4,557,471 last year, a drop of 1.75%.
One possible factor explaining why church contribution revenue increased despite declining membership is that Catholics who pay the tax saw a rise in wages in 2024, resulting in increased giving.
The dioceses had a total income of roughly 763.8 million euros ($905 million) and expenses of 784.3 million euros ($929 million) in 2024. In 2023, they had an income of 698.3 million euros ($827 million) and expenses of 732.1 million euros ($867 million).
Austria’s Catholic community is seeing an increase in the number of people being readmitted after formally disaffiliating or being received into the Church as converts, which are treated as a single category by statisticians.
In 2024, 5,154 people were readmitted or newly received, up from 4,575 in 2023.
The Church in Austria is seeking to make the readmission process as simple as possible via a new website, eintreten.at, for people seeking to rejoin or be received into the Church. Some dioceses also have websites that allow “digital re-entry with a single click.”
Austria is not seeing the boom in adult baptisms reported in other European countries such as Belgium and France. But the number of adult baptisms has risen year-on-year, from 208 in 2023 to 255 in 2024.
Infant baptisms are decreasing amid a wider decline in births in Austria. There were 36,705 such baptisms in 2024, down from 39,488 in 2023.
First Communions rose slightly from 45,132 in 2023 to 45,685 in 2024. The number of couples opting for church weddings fell from 8,228 in 2023 to 7,537 last year.
In 2024, 3,269 priests were serving in Austria, comprising 1,619 diocesan priests, 1,193 religious priests, and 457 foreign priests.
The overall number of priests declined slightly from 3,320 in 2023, but has remained relatively stable in the past five years.
The number of lay people working in pastoral ministry rose from 1,409 in 2023 to 1,463 in 2024.
Austrian pastoral theologian Regina Polak said the new statistics showed it was “time to breathe a little easier — but not a time to rest.”
“There is no cause for euphoria, as traditional forms of Christian practice continue to decline, and religious pluralization and the secular context will continue to challenge the Church,” she told the Kathpress news agency.