I’m O+, which is the most common blood type. I was just bitching in the Pit about how the damned Red Cross won’t leave me alone and I’m not even O-. I’m a little curious to see if a self-selected group of poll answerers comes out to roughly the population average. If you know your type, what is it? (Poll coming, keep your shorts on.)
AB+, a rare enough blood type that blood banks seem to want it, but I can’t give blood due to the theoretical risk of Mad Cow Disease. Moo.
I’m what the pros call a “weak D”. I’m technically Rh positive, but it’s not immediately apparent and only shows up if you do a certain test.
So, it ends up that I’m considered A+ as a donor but sometimes A- as a recipient, depending on how much testing is done. I never understood why my hospital records from my birth had me as Aneg but when I donated blood the card came back Apos. I chalked it up to a mistake until I went to med tech school and learned all about blood types. Then I tested my own blood and figured it out.
I’m a mutant!
Oh, and I don’t work for the Red Cross but I do work in a blood bank - everyone who can should donate, at least once in a while. Opos may be the most common, but by extension it’s also the most used. I had a surgical patient take 30 units in one day last week. If you’re being pestered a lot it’s probably because you’ve got a rare type (there’s way more to blood than A/B/O and Rh, you can be special for lots of other reasons) and you’re valuable!
O+ the universal donor.
When I was in the Pilippines my mother in law was hospitalized and I donated blood. She wanted to know if her eyes would turn blue. 
Universal donor is O-, not O+.
I’m O- and usually anemic. It’s frustrating for both of us (the Red Cross and me). 
A+
Um… O something. ::hangs head in shame::
AB-
I didn’t get here in time to get in the poll though.
I’ll be durned. After making my post the results were gone and the poll was back at the top. What gives with that?
I’m not sure what you mean… I didn’t have any problem voting.
O+
Represent!
Either A or AB. I don’t know if I’m Rh +/-. I don’t weigh enough to donate anyway.
I am A, the most common type in Japan. But I can’t give blood because I’m on anti-depressants. Bummer.
I’m O- as well. It’s the duct tape of blood. Anyone can use it in a pinch. Once the Red Cross finds out, you are a marked man (or woman).
When I was young, I couldn’t give blood because I didn’t weigh enough. Now that I do, I am wondering, if you take medication, are you allowed?
oh, O+
+1 but I can donate as I live in Mad Cow land. We are rare, but the utility of our whole blood is low, as it can only be given to other AB+ers, though if I understand correctly our plasma is universal. On the plus side, in small amounts, we can take all other blood groups! Yay for being a universal receiver.
Aren’t both types of O extremely rare?
Antigen, I guess that’s related to what my Dad was told, that most negatives in our area were “negative but not quite” but he was “a true negative”. The doc (who knew Dad’s first answer to “may I” was always “no”) joked that it wasn’t valid as an excuse for negative outlooks.
One of my Costa Rican coworkers was O-. As far as he knew, there were only 3 O- people in the country (or at least, only 3 registered with the blood bank): each of them had the phone numbers of the other two.
BigBertha, it depends on the medication. For example, AFAIK neither insulin nor the Pill are no-nos, but blood thinners would be. Antigen will know more, but which specific ones are allowed and which not may vary by location.
It varies some by geographic region, the figures in the UK are
O + Pos 37%
O - Neg 7%
Total Blood Type O 44%
A + Pos 35%
A - Neg 7%
Total Blood Type A 42%
B + Pos 8%
B - Neg 2%
Total Blood Type B 10%
AB + Pos 3%
AB - Neg 1%
Total Blood Type AB 4%
Total Pos 83%
Total Neg 17%
The “I don’t knowers” are skewing your percentages. You will need to adjust to see if we approximate national averages.
O-, but for various medical reasons (not weight, though) I cannot donate.