People

Austrians are a people of mixed Dinaric, Nordic, Alpine, and East Baltic origin. Germans constitute about 88% of the total population. Ethnic minorities include Croatians in the Burgenland, making up about 0.3% of the population, and Slovenes in southern Carinthia, accounting for about 0.2%. Other groups comprise the remaining 0.1%, including Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbians and Italians.

Language

The official language is German and nearly 99% of the inhabitants speak it as their mother tongue. People in Vorarlberg Province speak German with an Alemannic accent, similar to that in Switzerland. In other provinces, Austrians speak various Bavarian dialects. There are also Croatian, Slovene and Hungarian speaking minorities, and small groups of Czech, Slovak and Polish speakers in Vienna.

Religion

About 78% of the people are Roman Catholic; 5% belong to the Lutheran Church (Ausburger and Helvetic Confessions); and 17% belong to other or no religious groups, including Islam (2%). The Jewish community stands at about 0.09% of the population; Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian) at 1.5%; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) and the New Apostolic Church, 0.2% each; the Syrian Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Methodist Church of Austria, and the Buddhist community, all under 0.1% each. These are the only religions that are officially recognised. About 2% claim membership in non-recognised faiths. More than 8% of Austrians profess atheism. A number of groups defined as 'sects' by the government are active in the country, including the Church of Scientology and the Unification Church.