Blood types here and there
A blood drive at work (I didn't participate at this time) offered some trivia about the distribution of blood types, which got me thinking. I gave blood a couple of times back when I lived in California, so I knew my blood type (O) was very common and very much in demand. I was therefore surprised to learn of the high number of type A's in Norway.
While hunting for the US statistics, I learned that the majority of the A's in Norway live in the northern part of the country. So I looked up the statistics for the Sami people, who live primarily north of the arctic circle:
| People/per cent | Type O | Type A | Type B | Type AB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA (whites) | 45 | 40 | 11 | 4 |
| Norway (Norwegians) | 39 | 49 | 8 | 4 |
| Sami (Lapps) | 29 | 63 | 4 | 4 |
The distribution for Danes, Swedes and Finns is pretty similar to the Norwegians. The Icelanders, however, show a very clear preference for type O. My own blood type seems to be influenced by my British Isle ancestry.
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