A friend sent me an article about blood types, more specifically O blood types which she is, and asked if I knew my blood type. "Of course I know my blood type!" I told her, "B-Negative, my mom made sure we knew it very early on because it was one of the rarest ones." So then I got to wondering... how rare is it exactly? Enter Daily Doodle #135, "What is the rarest blood type?"
After reading several articles regarding blood types, I have discovered scientists don't really talk about "rarest blood type" unless the region or area is specfied because blood types are linked to genetics. So depending on where you are in the world, population blood type percentages will change. For example, in India the most common blood type is B-Postive, and in Denmark it is A-Postive and in America the most common blood type is O-Postive.
So what about the most rare? In the United States the most rare blood type is AB-Negative at 0.6 percent, followed by B-Negative at 1.5 percent, AB-positive at 3.4 percent, A-negative at 6.3 percent, O-negative at 6.6 percent, B-positive at 8.5 percent, A-positive at 35.7 percent, and finally the most common is O-positive at 37.4 percent.
Now the cool thing is that just because your blood type is rare doesn't mean you can't get blood from other groups, unless you're O-Negative, in which case you can give blood to anyone, but can only receive blood that is O-Negative. Crazy right? So I don't confuse you with a bunch of text, you can check out the Red Cross website or the little chart from Medical News Today that I will put below to show you the donor/receiver situation:
Bottom line there’s a complex set of systems used to categorize what goes on with blood. There are dozens of blood typing systems, but most people are familiar with the ABO and Rh systems, which provide the eight basic blood types. Generally, AB-negative is considered to be the rarest blood type. However, because blood type is linked to genetics, there is no single type that’s considered to be the rarest worldwide. Oh, and donate blood if you can, because you might save a life!
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