Austria saw a rise in anti-Christian hate crimes in 2025.
According to a report by Austria’s Federal Ministry of the Interior, hate crimes against Christians rose by 29 percent in 2025, compared to the previous year. The total amount of decidedly anti-Christian hate crimes was 133, around 19 percent of all religiously motivated crimes.
In 2025, a total of 6,751 hate crimes were recorded by the police in Austria. Religious hostility ranks as the third most common motive for such crimes in the country, following “worldview” and “national or ethnic origin.” A total of 696 hate crimes motivated by religious hostility were documented.
Particularly significant in 2025 was the increase in reported anti-Christian attacks on religious sites such as churches, cemeteries, and monuments. Of the total of 21 documented anti-religious incidents at religious sites, 12 were motivated by anti-Christian sentiment, with these acts primarily taking the form of serious property damage.
In contrast, incidents recorded as anti-Muslim occurred primarily in public spaces, where the police recorded 69 such incidents. Crimes categorized as anti-Semitic, on the other hand, were particularly prevalent in the online sphere, as more than a third of these crimes were online posts.
Anti-Christian hate crimes are most often committed by young foreigners. While the overall proportion of non-Austrians among all hate crime suspects in the country is 28 percent, in cases of anti-Christian sentiment, 57 percent of the suspects did not hold Austrian citizenship. The age group that stands out most prominently in hostility against Christian is adolescents aged 14 to under 18.
In cases of anti-Muslim hostility, 43 percent were foreigners, whereas 74 percent of anti-Semitic offenses were committed by Austrian citizens, meaning that only 26% of suspects were non-Austrian.
The anti-Christian hate crimes in Austria are part of a growing trend of such incidents across Europe.
Data from the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe recorded more than 2,200 anti-Christian crimes in 2024 throughout the continent.