Hate crimes in Austria have most frequently targeted people based on their national or ethnic origin, but offences against Jews were also particularly prevalent in 2025.
307 indictments were brought for crimes motivated by national or ethnic origin, resulting in 115 convictions. A further 71 convictions were recorded for offences targeting Jewish individuals.
Since 12 May, 2025, Austria’s justice system has been required to categorise bias-motivated offences in detail.
Under a decree issued by Justice Minister Anna Sporrer, the specific motive behind each hate crime must now be recorded in the judicial IT system. The most common motives identified so far are national or ethnic origin and hostility towards Western democracies, the latter accounting for 151 indictments and 44 convictions.
Crimes motivated by antisemitism were also widespread. In 2025, 114 indictments were brought on this basis, while 430 cases were discontinued and 17 resolved through diversionary measures.
Court proceedings resulted in 71 convictions and 11 acquittals for offences committed against Jews. According to the Ministry of Justice, it is not possible to determine whether this high number is linked to the renewed conflict in the Middle East following the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, as no comparable data from previous years is available.
A bar chart illustrating convictions for hate crimes in 2025 shows that offences motivated by hatred of another nationality or ethnic origin were the most common, with 115 convictions, followed by crimes against Jews (71) and hostility towards Western democracy (44). In total, 368 hate crime convictions were recorded.
