The number of Canberra residents signing up to give blood for the first time has plummeted by half in the past decade, as busy lifestyles discourage some from the life-saving volunteering.
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The trend means the overall number of blood donors has fallen by 17 per cent since 2005, but "super donors" have allowed the number of ACT donations to remain steady.
A Red Cross Blood Service spokeswoman said about 35,000 donations were made each year, helping to save the lives of more than 100,000 people.
"We are now seeing around 1000 plasma donors in Canberra give blood between 10 to 24 times per year, an extraordinary commitment," she said.
The decline is broadly consistent with national figures, which show a 30 per cent drop in new donors signing up each year since 2008.
Red Cross Blood Service ACT spokeswoman Sally Gavin said the Canberra community was "incredibly generous" when it came to donations, but the 9500 regular donors were still a small percentage of the population being made responsible for keeping blood supplies flowing.
"Around 6 per cent of eligible Canberran people roll up their sleeves to donate, compared to 3 per cent of the Australian population," she said.
"However, more than 147,000 people in Canberra are eligible to give blood and we are appealing to those people to become blood donors.
"Blood is something you won't miss if you give it, but patients in hospitals will."
The national spokeswoman said time was usually the biggest barrier to recruiting new donors, even though a whole blood donation can be made in as little as 30 minutes, including paperwork.
Reflecting national trends, the decline was aided by the mandatory deferrals of scheduled donations due mainly to growing numbers of travellers heading to areas affected by health risks such as dengue fever, she said. There was also increasing numbers of donors getting tattooed, which triggers a six-month donation ban.
Canberra's donation centre in Garran was second only to Sydney's Town Hall centre for most donations nationally for plasma, the liquid component of your blood that was made into 18 different products used for a range of people from cancer patients to burns victims.
The demand for plasma and its supply has increased sharply, with the number of plasma donors nationally more than tripling to 13,000 in the decade to last year. Demand for red cell components from whole blood donations has declined in recent years.
