Abstract.Based on data from 96, and estimates from 32 countries with populations of over 1 million, it was calculated that the total amount of whole blood collected annually in the world in the early 1980s was about 75 million units. Of this, one‐third was collected by Red Cross and Red Crescent blood programmes. The index of donations per 1,000 population was on average 50.2 in industrial market countries, 9.5 in middle‐income countries and 1.1 in low‐income countries. For planning purposes donation rates in relation to health services are better than the population index. It seems that roughly 10 annual donations per acute hospital bed, or 0.40 donation per patient admission to these hospitals would be sufficient to provide adequate quantitites of blood and blood products for modern haemoth