People donate blood at a donation point after a deadly chemical factory blast killed dozens in Xiangshui county in Jiangsu province, March 22, 2019. [Photo by Wang Jing/China Daily]

BEIJING - The number of voluntary blood donations in China rose by 2.8 percent to 14.99 million in 2018, according to the country's National Health Commission (NHC).

The figure indicates that China saw nearly 11.2 blood donors in every 1,000 people last year, the NHC report says.

The volume of blood collected from voluntary donors also increased in 2018, with a year-on-year growth of 3.7 percent.

The number of voluntary blood donations has seen 21 years of consecutive growth in China, from 328,000 in 1998 to 14.99 million in 2018, the NHC figures show.