General Blood Statistics

General

• One in three Australians will need blood or blood products in their lifetime
• One in 30 Australians give blood each year (3%)
• One blood donation can save up to three lives
• Australia needs more than 29,000 donations every week
• Demand for blood and blood products will grow by 100% over the next 10 years

Statistics

Donor statistics

• Donors: 460,800
• Collections per day:
  • Whole blood: 1,900
  • Plasma: 1,700
  • Platelets: 154
• 1,329,849 individual blood and plasma donations by Australian donors
• 961,891 fresh blood products delivered to hospitals and healthcare provides to help Australian patients
• 675 tonnes of plasma delivered to CSL Behring for use in 18 different life-giving ways

Collection centres

• Fixed sites: 79
• Donor mobile: 18

Checklist

Most people are able to give blood if they:

• Feel fit and healthy
• Are aged between 18 and 70
• Weigh over 50kg 

You may be temporarily unable to give blood if you:

• Are on certain medications or antibiotics 
• Have a cold or are feeling unwell in any way
• Have certain medical conditions
• Changed medications
• Recently had surgery
• Have had recent dental treatment
• Recently travelled
• Had a piercing

You will not be able to give blood if you:

• Have visited or lived in the UK for a cumulative total of six months or more between 1980 and 1996
• Have engaged in male to male sexual activity or other specified at risk sexual activity in the past 12 months
• Have recently been pregnant or given birth
• Have had a tattoo in the past four months
• Have ever had a serious heart condition
• Have ever had a serious blood disorder or disease
• Have "used drugs" by injection or been injected with drugs not prescribed by a doctor or dentist in the past 5 years.