(image from https://americasblood.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Whitepaper-National-Stats_2026.pdf)
Donations aren’t always monetary or of time. According to data in a new report from America’s Blood Centers (ABC) and ADRP: The Association for Blood Donor Professionals, of all U.S. blood donors, 50.1% were male and 49.9% were female during 2023, the latest year with such data.
Those marked a shift from 2021 when there were 45.9% male and 54.1% female blood donors in the U.S. for whole blood and apheresis red blood cell collections.
Approximately only 3% of people old enough to donate blood do so. There were approximately 6.54 million donors during 2023, a drop of 0.1% from 2021 which had approximately 6.545 million donors.
Of all successful whole blood and apheresis red blood cell donations, there was a 37.6% increase in Black or African American donors, a 8.5% increase among Hispanic or Latino donors, and a 7.8% increase for Asian donors. In 2023, first-time donors were responsible for 26.3% (1.72 million) of U.S. successfully collected whole blood donations and repeat donors accounted for 73.8% (4.82 million. The numbers remained virtually the same from the 2021 data.
The blood donating population is 80.2% White, 6.6% Hispanic or Latino, 3.8% Black African American, 3.4% Asian, 0.5% Native American or Alaska Native, and 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
From 2021 to 2023, there was a 66% increase in donations from individuals ages 16 to 18. This increase might be due to the efforts of blood centers focusing on recruiting younger donors to help replace the aging donor population and the increase of school-based blood drives following the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to authors of the report.
From 2021 to 2023, there was a 2% decrease in donations from individuals 19 to 24 years old. From 2021 to 2023, there was a 11.6% decrease in donations from individuals 25 to 64 years old. From 2021 to 2023, there was virtually no change (.04% increase) in donations from individuals 65 and older.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Blood Establishment Registration database, there are 53 community blood centers and 115 hospital-based blood centers in the U.S. Community blood centers collect approximately 60% of the nation’s blood supply with the American Red Cross collecting approximately 40%
See the complete report at https://americasblood.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Whitepaper-National-Stats_2026.pdf
