Spain's bone marrow donor registry has registered 18,766 new donors in the first eight months of 2026 — an average of 77 people per day — bringing the total enrolled in the Registro Español de Donantes de Médula Ósea (REDMO) to 532,996, according to figures published on 22 September 2026, the date designated by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) to mark the importance of bone marrow donation. REDMO is managed by the Josep Carreras Foundation on behalf of Spain's Ministry of Health and the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT).
In 2025, 24,829 new donors joined the registry — equivalent to 68 per day — while 846 donation requests were made to REDMO, a record figure and an 18% increase on 2024. A total of 486 Spanish donors completed an effective donation last year, supplying patients in Spain and 29 other countries, representing 14% growth on the previous year. When Spain's Plan Nacional de Médula Ósea (PNMO) launched in 2012, just 35 effective donations took place; the figure has since multiplied by 14. Currently, 81% of donations are carried out using peripheral blood, without a bone marrow puncture.
The probability of finding a matching donor within REDMO now stands at 90%, up from 82% in 2012, and the median search time has fallen to 26 days. One in four patients in Spain — 26% — now receives a bone marrow transplant from a Spanish donor, reducing dependence on international registries.
The average age of donors recruited in 2025 was 27, and 52% of all registered donors are now under 40, compared with 30% in 2012. The ONT and the Josep Carreras Foundation note that younger donors are associated with better post-transplant outcomes. However, only 36% of registered donors are male, which the registry identifies as an ongoing challenge.
In 2025, Spain carried out 3,619 haematopoietic progenitor cell transplants in total; 1,637 of these were allogeneic, relying on a donor, and 794 involved voluntary unrelated donors — the highest figure on record, up 17% on the prior year. The registry is complemented by 60,897 public-bank umbilical cord blood units, of which approximately 7% have been prioritised for rapid release under the Ready 2 Ship (R2S) project of the national cord blood plan. More than 3,600 people in Spain require a bone marrow transplant each year to treat leukaemias, lymphomas, and other haematological diseases, according to the same release.
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