WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BLOOD TYPE A MOST FREQUENT?

Blood Type Frequency Maps

In the past few years, I have seen plenty of posts which contradicted each other.

In some cases, the contradiction wasn’t really a contradiction.

For example:

Parts of India have Rh- percentages of below 1 while others above 10.

Chile has parts of the population and regions where Rh- exceed 20 percent and others where there are less than 1 percent Rh negatives.

Then, of course, you have the blood bank “data” hardly ever representing the population when looking at percentages among donors due to excessive advertising towards and often harassment of people with blood type O negative.

And then there are claims such as “Portuguese have 53 percent blood type A” which when looking at actual data doesn’t seem to be the case. Similar to the claim that 15% worldwide is Rh-, which of course is wrong. It is actually below 6%.

Here are some of the populations with the highest percentages of blood type A:

Blackfoot Indians

The Blackfoot Confederacy, Niitsitapi, or Siksikaitsitapi, is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Blackfeet people: the Siksika, the Kainai or Blood, and two sections of the Peigan or Piikani – the Northern Piikani and the Southern Piikani.

Why are so many Blackfoot blood type A?

Sami People

The Sámi are the traditionally Sámi-speaking people inhabiting the region of Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

Great Andamanese

The Andamanese are the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory in the southeastern part of the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia. The Andamanese peoples are among the various groups considered Negrito, owing to their dark skin and diminutive stature.

Māori people

Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand. Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. 

Norway and Armenia

Both populations have 50% blood type A

As there are huge discrepancies between various claims, I will make sure not to forget a few other populations which have been claimed to have percentages of at least 50%:

Portuguese – 46.6%

Hawaiians

A-

About 6% of the population on the mainland has A- type blood. Here in Hawaii, Rh-negative blood types are half as common, with A- making up only 2.6% of Hawaii’s donor population. If you wonder why you should donate blood when there are not so many people with your blood type, remember it only takes one person in need with your blood type to make it the most important.

A+

In Hawaii, A+ is the second most common blood type (32%), so you’re in good company. Sure, lots of people have your blood type but there’s nothing common about your type if it’s not on the shelf when someone needs it.

https://www.bbh.org/about-blood/#blood-types

Australian Aboriginals

Swiss

Chile reported huge Rh- and blood type A frequencies among university students. Since blood type A was not present in the native population, the Portuguese, Spanish (43%) and Basques (44%) regain my interest with blood type A frequencies.

Overall, blood type A frequencies of 40% and above are of interest to me, but there are many European countries which top those.

However, there is also one Asian nation which does with 40% blood type A frequencies:

Japan