Europe may have sustained losses as high as 50-60% of its population in just 60 years during the Black Death.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Not sure
• D. Partly

Answer: (A)

The key idea is the extraordinary scale and repeated waves of death across decades. The Black Death didn’t hit once and vanish; it came in a series of outbreaks from roughly 1347 onward, with severe mortality in many regions persisting for decades. When you look at the long arc—from the initial eruption through the late 14th century—the cumulative toll in some areas reached a level that amounts to about half or more of the population. Estimates vary by region, but such high losses over a sixty-year span are well within what historians describe for the most affected parts of Europe. This is why the statement is true: the plague caused enormous, sustained demographic devastation, not just a single short-term spike.