While blood constantly pumps around the human body, you might not know much about your blood type and how it works.
There are several blood types with some being quite rare and this means that it’s even more important for these people to donate their blood.
The NHS needs three lifesaving blood donations every single minute.
Here’s what we know about the different blood types and how rare they are.
Which blood type is the most rare?
The NHS Give Blood website explains that AB negative is the most rare blood type with just 1% of donors having it.
Steve started donating blood before being asked if he wanted to become a platelet donor. He is now celebrating 250 credits, most of which he has achieved as a platelet donor! 🙌
— Give Blood NHS 🩸🩹 (@GiveBloodNHS) August 16, 2024
If you are the #GivingType like Steve, share your latest milestone with us: comment below. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/IRTmSryhqE
Having said this, the NHS said that the demand for this blood type is low and it doesn’t struggle to find donors with this blood type.
Some blood types like Ro subtype are both rare and in demand. Often, this type of blood is used to treat people with sickle cell.
Demand for this blood type is increasing each year by 10-15% but only 2% of donors have it.
How rare is each blood type?
Data from December 2018 is the most recent available and it revealed how rare the eight most common blood types are.
The NHS released figures showing the percentage of donors who had each of the eight blood types – the percentage was rounded to the nearest whole number:
- O positive: 35%
- O negative: 13%
- A positive: 30%
- A negative: 8%
- B positive: 8%
- B negative: 2%
- AB positive: 2%
- AB negative: 1%
How much water should you drink daily?
How does blood become rare?
The NHS explains: “Although the ABO and Rh groups are the most important for blood transfusions, there are 36 other known blood groups.
“Each blood group has a combination of sugars and proteins called antigens that are found on the outside of red blood cells.
“There are more than 600 antigens so there’s potential for a lot of variation between different people.
“If your blood has rare antigens or lacks common antigens you could have a rare subtype.”
How to find out your blood type
If you don’t already know your blood type, you can find out by having a sample of your blood taken and tested.
However, GPs won’t routinely check a patient’s blood type.
You can also find out what blood group you have by donating blood - more information can be found via the NHS Give Blood website.
We’ve teamed up with @Marvel_UK #DeadpoolAndWolverine to talk about something that’s even cooler than spandex suits: blood donation. 💛 ❤️
— Give Blood NHS 🩸🩹 (@GiveBloodNHS) August 12, 2024
Did you know that every single minute the NHS need 3 lifesaving blood donations?
Join us ➡️ https://t.co/MojfQD32I0#GiveBlood pic.twitter.com/fpihdBWSoi
Recommended reading:
- The best exercise to lower your blood pressure according to new study
- Calls for VAT on sun cream to be cut to help tackle skin cancer
- Pharmacies in England could fall to lowest numbers in almost 20 years
The NHS adds: “For the blood group test, your red blood cells are mixed with different antibody solutions.
“If, for example, the solution contains anti-B antibodies and you have B antigens on your cells (you're blood group B), it will clump together.
“If the blood does not react to any of the anti-A or anti-B antibodies, it's blood group O.
“A series of tests with different types of antibody can be used to identify your blood group.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here