Fewer and fewer Austrians belong to the Catholic faith: 85,000 people left the church in 2023

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The number of members of the Roman Catholic Church in Austria fell from 4,733,085 to 4,638,842 in 2023. This is according to the church statistics published by the Bishops’ Conference on Wednesday. The decline of around 1.9 percent is roughly the same as the previous year. With 85,163 resignations, around 5,500 fewer people left the church in 2023 than in 2022. Income from church contributions increased slightly, from just under 500 to 511 million euros.

Fewer baptisms and weddings
According to Kathpress, the reasons for the resignations are likely to be an increased distance from the church due to the pandemic and the tense economic situation. However, as the agency reported, it is not only the high number of resignations (72,000 in 2021, 58,000 in the previous year) that is responsible for the decline in membership, but above all, the ratio of baptisms to deaths and new arrivals to departures. The number of baptisms in 2023 was 39,488, around 5,000 fewer than the previous year. The number of marriages also fell: from 9,503 to 8,228.

Around 5,000 new admissions to the church
In 2023, 4,575 people were readmitted or newly admitted to the church, a slight decrease. 579 people also exercised their right of withdrawal in 2023. This refers to people who had initially declared their resignation but refrained from doing so after contacting church leaders and within a three-month period.

This is how many Austrians go to church services
The number of people attending church services has remained relatively stable. On the two counting Sundays, 321,821 and 347,891 worshippers were counted. In 2022, the figures were 309,000 and 366,000 respectively, significantly higher than in the coronavirus years of 2021 and 2020. However, the church has not yet been able to match the pre-pandemic figures: between 497,000 and 533,000 people attended mass in 2019, compared to between 502,000 and 554,000 in 2018. The number of people in Austria who attend church services on Sundays via radio, television and the internet has remained very high. According to surveys by ORF and ServusTV, there were regularly around 800,000 to over 1 million people attending services in 2023.
Decline in church funerals
The number of church funerals amounted to 50,900 in 2023, a significant decrease compared to 2022 (54,525). According to official church statistics, the number of priests working in Austria amounted to 3,320 in 2023, which is also a slight decrease compared to 2022 (3,403). Overall, however, the number of priests has remained relatively stable in recent years.