How many people died in the Black Death?

The Black Death ravaged the Medieval world in the mid-fourteenth century and the precise death toll is a hotly-debated subject among historians. This is because historians do not have national population data for this period: the various countries of Medieval Europe, for example, did not conduct national censuses, as we do today. Historians, therefore, have to estimate the death toll using other sources, like contemporary chronicles, such as the chronicle of Henry Knighton (in England) or Agnola di Tura (in Siena, Italy). Historians also use records from the Church which indicate how many clerical positions fell vacant during this period.

According to the historian, J. F. Heckler, an "absolute minimum" of 20 million people died as a result of Black Death. (See the first reference link provided). Other historians, like Ole J. Benedictow, however, put the death toll at closer to sixty percent of the population of Medieval Europe which equates to 50 million people. (See the second reference link provided). Some historians estimate the death toll be somewhere between these two figures, at around one-third of the population but, as you can see, it is a very difficult question to answer.