Are off-airport landouts common and/or dangerous?

I know one club where a landout is required before solo. The field happens to be adjacent and the farmer leaves a landing lane when he bales hay.

I was working on my second duration flight for my bronze badge when the radio announced a runway change. Not too long after, the quarry thermals packed it in and I belatedly realized I was now downwind of the field. But there were lots of freshly seeded long fields with furrows crosswind as I headed back. Then I found a field with furrows into the wind and worked out a landing lane clear of slope, power lines and tree. Continued looking for a thermal at high key until at circuit height and landed.

A private owner squeaked it back over the woods about the same time and admitted he would have been wiser to have landed out.

There's a significant number of gliders crunched in poor terrain near the home field after they had passed over landable fields. Sadder are the cases where the pilot spins in making a dodgy approach at the home field after arriving low.