Historians estimate that it reduced the total world population from 450 million to between 350 and 375 million. In most parts of Europe, it took nearly 80 years for population sizes to recover, and in some areas more than 150 years.
From the perspective of many of the survivors, however, the effect of the plague may have been ultimately favorable, as the massive reduction of the workforce meant their labor was suddenly in higher demand. R.H. Hilton has argued that those English peasants who survived found their situation to be much improved.
