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Blood Donation in Iceland

You are visiting www.blodbankinn.is which is the official website of The Icelandic Blood Bank. This website contains useful information about donating blood.
All volunteer blood donors must be evaluated by the Blood Bank staff to determine their eligibility to give blood. Therefore, all blood donors in Iceland must be able to communicate in Icelandic or English (spoken and written) to prevent any potential misunderstanding regarding the criteria for blood donation. These criteria are written to ensure the safety of both the blood donor and the recipient.

Before donating blood you must 1) have an Icelandic identification number (kennitala), 2) plan to live in Iceland for at least one year, 3) be in general good health and 4) be 18-65 years old. If you come from Australia, USA, Europe, Canada or New Zealand, and fulfill the criteria for blood donors, you may donate blood after three months’ residence in Iceland. If you come from other areas you may donate after 6 months´ residence in Iceland.

The Blood Bank is the sole supplier of blood products in Iceland. Therefore, we continually need new blood donors to help us meet the demand for various blood products. There are about 7-8.000 donors who donate blood at least once a year. Almost 2.5 per cent of the population in Iceland are registered donors.
The Blood Bank has two main collection sites; one at The National University Hospital of Iceland in Reykjavík and the other at the Akureyri Hospital. In addition there is a mobile blood collection unit that operates largely in Reykjavik and vicinity, but also visits towns in the North and West of Iceland.

When you arrive at the Blood Bank for donation you will receive a pre-printed questionnaire labelled with your name/ID that you will fill out on site.
Please notice that this questionnaire should not be printed out at home nor filled out on the website.