Organ Donation Registration Continues to Rise

If your health deteriorated to the point where you needed an organ transplant, or if you got into an accident that necessitated one urgently, you'd like to think that there was a stock of available donor organs awaiting your needs. Thankfully, it seems that organ donation is on the rise.

The NHS Organ Donation Register (ODR) statistics for 2104 were released in a report in showing the number of registered organ donors in the period from 31st March 2005 to 31st  March 2014.

The report shows a rise from 12.2 million organ donors in 2005 to 20.2 million organ donors in 2014:

Source: NHS ODR Report 2014

The largest single source of donations came through the DVLA (53%) with people electing to join when registering for a new drivers license, which implies people will do so when presented with an opportunity. The next largest categories being via the online portal (19%) and at the GP's (19%).

The increasing trend might also be something to do with the willingness of younger age groups to donate. The largest donating age group was 21-30, followed by 16-20 and then 31-40.

If this could be matched by an upward trend in blood donation stats, then that really would be good news....