Covid obviously hit everyone hard. Interestingly, our attendance has been very slowly increasing. Ash Wednesday marked a bump in weekly attendance, and we expect to go up a little bit more at/after Easter. I think people are finally warming back up to the idea.

With the vaccine into more arms and distancing/masking still in place, more people are feeling comfortable coming back at my parish. We are noticing an uptick (suburban Chicago), and we expect it to continue. We can only hope it continues as vaccination efforts continue and we can start relaxing the restrictions.

Our parish is growing, but I'm not in the Northeastern United States. I attribute the growth to the TLM.

Sunday Mass attendance, now spread over 3 Masses, is holding more or less steady at or near the capacity allowed by draconian county regulations and a governor who is likely to be recalled.

Mass attendance at my parish is pretty much back to normal and rising, with the help of our overflow space. Fortunately, our state's governor never imposed hypocritical capacity limits on churches. The parish's TLM seems to be getting more popular, thus aiding the attendance uptick. But, I'm not contracted to oversee that Mass - anecdotal evidence suggests as such to me.

At the 4-5 different locations where i go frequently Masses are at or over capacity (every other seat or row is taped off to keep people spread out, so that would put Masses at about half the previous capacity).

We have been held to 30 people at Mass for a while, but soon will be allowed 120 (1/3 our capacity). I expect it to fill up at that amount as our parish has been growing before and during this pandemic.

In response to the edit:

The numbers rise, fall, and rise again. Mostly, the change seems to coincide with things like holidays, weather, and time changes. For instance, the church emptied when we hit sub zero for two weeks straight. The next week when it was much warmer, the church was packed. This week with the time change, there was a substantial drop-off in attendance at the last Mass. I have a feeling that a lot of late-risers rose a bit too late.

Our most popular Mass at the parish where I go (not my geographical one), is Sunday at 10:00 a.m., and it seems we are increasing the number of congregants each week. We have some weekends where we’re over-capacity because people end up standing. I’m in the northeast. The winter months are always hit-or-miss because of weather, but Lent typically brings more people back, especially in the latter weeks closer to Holy Week and Easter. I think with increased vaccination rates and lowering COVID-transmission rates, more and more people are feeling comfortable coming back to Mass. The warmer temps also bring more people back (especially the elderly).

In my parish, Covid has played a major factor in attendance but also we experienced a couple mass schedule changes which were not Covid driven. The latest schedule will begin Palm Sunday. I think too we have an older congregation which has been a factor. Getting everyone to wear masks as required is a factor and keeps some people from coming due to safety concerns. Sadly, some of the TLM parishioners don't were mask.

Sadly, some of the TLM parishioners don't were mask.

Good!

To reply to the original question, some parishes around me experienced a drop-off after restarting public Masses. Others didn't.

If this devolves into an argument about masks

It doesn't have to go in that direction.

Salieri,

I will second your request, but since the topic under discussion is diminishing congregations, and since this is the CMAA's forum, is it fair to ask if masks make singing choir members less willing to sing?

is it fair to ask if masks make singing choir members less willing to sing?

I am only singing in my choir because my bishop said "face coverings" are required... and what I sing in, well, there is something between my face and fresh air. Even in this lack-of what one might laughably call a "barrier," the warmth from my breath still stays in front of my face. It's crazy.
The few times I did sing, wearing a mask, I became light-headed, over-heated, got a sore throat, and lost my voice. Only those times.
The only other time I lost my voice was this past weekend, because spring allergies come early in the southeast, and I couldn't stop sneezing.

I am not bothered by masks so much as to breathing, but they surely do fog my glasses. None of the supposed fixes for that, including an anti-fog spray seem to do much good.

Many folks in my area haven't been to a mass in almost a year. When normal mass schedules resume, I wonder how many people will never come back.

Has the Sunday obligation been reinstated in any of your dioceses? Ours hasn’t been.

Sunday Obligation was restored in my diocese as of March 10. With exceptions for those who are in at-risk categories or those who are afraid of catching the virus. Saturday Mass increased slightly from the previous week, but still around 25% of what we used to get on Saturday.

The obligation hasn't been restored (to the best of my knowledge), here.

Again, my suspicion that some have been away for so long, they may not come back when restrictions are lifted.

Do any of you personally know anyone who goes to Mass on Sunday solely because it's obligatory?

As one priest recently observed on his FB page, a lot of church web sites give absolutely no indication of whether a dispensation is in effect; when you add in how unclear the Mass times and confession times often are, it shows they have no idea what people use the web for.

Catholic parishes are, typically, terrible with in-time updating and evolution of their online presence; information is typically perfunctory - or beside the point insider stuff - and grudgingly updated, if updated at all (it's handed off as an afterthought to volunteers or underpaid staff that are never accountable for the work in any fruitful way). And that's being charitable. I believe it's evidence of residue of a longstanding unspoken assumption that, because Catholics are obliged to be in the pews (aside from COVID-tide), there's no need to attract a flock.*

* Illustrative mentality: "We're the One Holy Roman and Apostolic Church(TM). [Hands over an offertory basket.] Remind us who you are again?"

For those that want to go back in time here is our diocese website, http://rcsouthwark.co.uk/indexold.html
Don't worry they are working on a modern website! So this bit of history will soon be gone.

While I'm sure there will be a handful of people who return once they get their covid shots, I suspect that after a year, the majority of people planning on coming back have found their way back by now.

CatherineS... ah yes, the ‘verbal parish billboard’ as you’re riding out of Mass... an icon in the AmCat tradition! I wish they would also advertise cheap used cars for sale... make, model, year, price, and most importantly the Vin number. (It would be best if it was set to a psalm tone, and PLEASE, a different one each week... I cannot bear repetitive sounding VIN numbers for weeks on end)

I hazard to guess that over the next 10-15 years there will be a tremendous winnowing among Catholic parishes almost everywhere in the United States.

The current number of parishes, even after some dioceses have restructured by closing and merging parishes, is much larger than can be sustained once the Baby Boomer generation is no longer able to attend Mass. Baby Boomers still attend Mass and contribute financially in large numbers, but that won't last much longer.

Parishes will have to compete for the remaining practicing Catholics among Gens X, Y and Z, and among Gens Y and Z the retention rate after Confirmation has been about 10% of those raised Catholic.

After a year of dispensation from attending Mass, even those younger Catholics who still bothered to go to Mass not only have had the Mass attending habit broken but some of them have observed that not attending Mass has had no negative effect on their lives. For them, the realization is one of, "Huh... church doesn't seem that important because I've gone a year without it and I'm not any worse off."

We're not likely to get them back with no effort on our part.

The Catholic parishes that survive will be those that shift from a mentality that there will always be enough Catholics to fill the pews and the collection basket to those who recruit parishioners both by offering quality worship and catechesis and social activities, and by seeking out the lost sheep.