Thursday, October 22, 2009

Interesting.....

Recently I became curious and went on a search to find out more about blood types. You always hear about universal donors and universal recipients, but I can never remember the details. So I found these charts that I thought were interesting. Here's the breakdown of the U.S. population:

I always assumed that every blood type was just about as common as every other, but apparently the majority of people in the U.S. (over 70%) are either O positive or A positive. So then you can look at this next chart and see what types of blood you can receive for your blood type. I'm A negative.....so it's a little scary to think that if I ever need blood, I'd have to get it from a person who's either A negative or O negative (only 13% of the population, combined). It makes me want to go donate!!

If your blood type is: You can receive:
O- O+ B- B+ A- A+ AB- AB+
AB+ yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
AB- yes
yes
yes
yes
A+ yes yes

yes yes

A- yes


yes


B+ yes yes yes yes



B- yes
yes




O+ yes yes





O- yes






2 comments:

Sara said...

Interesting! I'm O, but I can never remember whether I'm positive or negative. I probably should know what type everyone in our family is; seems like one of those questions that would come in handy some day.

katy said...

I'm O-. Wouldn't remember that, except for the fun shots that come from being pregnant and having a negative blood type.