Ten Mormon missionaries died in 2013, Seven in 2014 and only four, so far, in 2015. Despite the number of full time serving missionaries rising, the number of deaths has decreased. How does the LDS Church keep 80,000 missionaries safe?
In a rare statement issued in Oct 2013, a month after the 10th missionary died, Elder David F. Evans, said “Mormon missions are inherently safe”.
The official statement came as the LDS Church coped with a wave of more than 100,000 young women and men added to its missionary ranks in just three years since the October 2012 announcement lowering the missionary age to 18 for men and 19 for women.
But they are way lower death rates for the same age group across U.S. and world populations — as tracked by the World Health Organization. Same aged rates of death for non-missionaries are six to 20 times higher, depending on the measures used.
