About one in three people living in Australia were born overseas.
In summary
- Analysis for The Conversation by Tanya Davison, Associate Professor, Swinburne University of Technology; James Daly, Adjunct Associate Professor, Queensland University of Technology; and Robert Flower, Associate Professor, University of Sydney.
It's often said that no matter who we are, "we all bleed red". But although our blood may be the same colour, we're as individual on the inside as we are on the surface. Just like our background determines the way we look, where we come from is one of the major factors that influences the make up of our blood.
About half of people living in Australia today were either born overseas, or have a parent born overseas. This increase in the diversity of our population leads to a corresponding diversity in the people who need medical treatment – and their blood types.
We need a broad mix of ethnicities in our donor pool to meet the needs of patients with rare blood types. Providing the right blood and blood products for an ethnically diverse population presents an evolving challenge for blood collection agencies around the world, including here in Australia.
