How might europe be different if the black plague had never occurred

If the plague, also referred to as ''black death'', didn't occurred in Europe, the continent would have had a much larger population for starters. Because of the plague and the huge loss of population, Europe faced huge problems from social, economic, and military perspective, but if it hadn't occurred, Europe would have been much stronger and the progress of the continent would have been evident and bigger earlier in time. Considering the European colonialism, it was also going to have a huge global effect because there was going to be a much larger number of people migrating into the European colonies later on.  

the western roman empire flourished, but the eastern portion of the empire struggled.