American Red Cross Northern Ohio Blood Services Region

• An adult body contains 10-12 pints of blood.
  
  
• It takes about 6-10 minutes to donate a pint of blood and 24 hours for your body to replace the blood fluid volume. The red cells may take up to two months for full restoration.
  
  
• One unit of blood can be separated into components and used to treat up to three patients.
  
  
• Whole blood has a shelf-life of 35 days. Red blood cells last 42 days, platelets only five days and plasma up to one year.
  
  
• The most common blood type is O positive (38% of the population). The rarest blood is AB negative (<1%).
  
  
• An average healthy person will be eligible to give blood more than 330 times in his or her lifetime.
  
  
• Less than 5% of the general population donates blood and yet the majority of people will have at least one family member who will require at least one blood transfusion in their lifetime.

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