The Islamisation of Vienna’s public school system is progressing rapidly.
Latest numbers from the city’s education authority – published today by newspaper Die Presse – show that Muslims now make up 42 per cent of the 114,000 pupils in Vienna’s state schools.
The main other groups are children without a religious affiliation (23 per cent), Catholics (17 per cent) and Orthodox Christians (14 per cent).
In public, middle and polytechnical schools almost half the students (49 per cent) adhere to Islam. These are schools for children aged 10 to 15 who typically learn a trade after school.
In public primary schools for kids aged six to 10, Muslims account for 39 per cent of all students.
Integration expert Kenan Güngör said the proportion of Muslims in Austria had risen especially rapidly since 2015 when large-scale immigration from Arab countries and other Muslim countries to Austria started:
“This is having an impact on schools – because the birth rate is higher among immigrants from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and similar places,” he said.
Güngör added that, while in the past most Muslims in Austria were of Turkish origin, the recent wave of immigration has brought a shift towards Arab Muslims.
This has led to a change in Muslim attitudes: “In Turkey, there was a traditional form of everyday Islam that allowed for much greater diversity. This is not the case with Arab Islam. Arab Islam is more homogeneous, more fixated on the Quran, and consequently more rigid and radical.
“This also has an impact on how Islam is practised by the pupils in Vienna. This is because this understanding of Islam goes hand in hand with significantly more traditional values and gender roles for women.”
Austrian newspapers regularly report on non-Muslim students being bullied by their Islamist classmates, in some cases allegedly being forced to wear Muslim niqabs to escape victimisation.
Most immigrants from Muslim countries choose to settle in Vienna – where generous social welfare policies act like a magnet for mostly poorly qualified and unemployed immigrants.
In May 2025, the case of a Syrian family of 13 in Vienna who received €9,000 in (tax-free) welfare per month made headlines. The news caused a wave of anger as a regular family with working parents and 11 children could never receive even close to this amount.
In 2025, the City of Vienna spent more than €1.2 billion on welfare payments, most of which (67 per cent) was paid out to non-Austrians.
