How much of the US population is eligible to donate blood?

Answer 1

Estimates by the American Red Cross and America's Blood Centers suggest that less than 5% of eligible blood donors provide all the volunteer blood components each year. Approximately 14-16 million donations are made each year, by 8-9 million donors, producing 30-45 million transfusable blood components.

AABB.org

FDA.gov

Americasblood.org

Answer 2

I do not know the exact percent but everyone should donate blood as often as they can. A lot of peope do not realize that we actually have a shortage of blood. If everyone donated blood we could save millions of lives.

Answer 3

Total blood volume in most adults is approximately 55-60 mL/kg body weight. Current FDA guidelines allow the collection of 10.5 mL/Kg body weight of whole blood to be collected during volunteer blood donation. With the majority of blood collection facilities using 500ml collection sets, and an additional 50 ml collected for screening tests, this represents approximately 12-15% of circulating blood volume. Removal of volumes above this significantly increase post-transfusion reactions (weakness, fainting, nausea, seizure activity, etc.).

Answer 4

Theoretically, the entire US population above the age of 16 is eligible for volunteer blood donation. However, medical and high risk deferrals remove approximately 30-40%. The latest National Blood Utilization Survey (2009) indicates that 5-7% of the eligible population donates blood. In 2008 (latest data), 17 million units were donated by 10 million donors.