Mormon pioneers were safer on trek than previously thought, especially infants

With all the suffering on the Pioneer overland trek, things were not necessarily any better at home.

“I always thought that people were dying left and right. But in reality, it wasn't much different than the general population. If you randomly select 100 people in America at that time, you'd expect 2.9 to die. If you randomly select 100 pioneers, you'd expect 3.5 to die. Crossing the Plains was more dangerous, but it was a small difference.”

Aaron Smith

also FTA:  these rates are hard to compare as our current rate is 0.008 instead of 2.9.