Abstract: A method and apparatus for automatically recognizing blood cells is provided. The method comprises obtaining image data of said blood cells, storing the image data of said blood cells in a memory, analyzing the image data of said blood cells and calculating a plurality of cell-characteristic parameter values for each of said blood cells, and recognizing each of said blood cells based on said plurality of cell-characteristic parameter values. In order to analyze the image data of blood cells, a group of nucleus pixels are first extracted from said stored image data and stored in the memory. The group of nucleus pixels are then segmented into individual nucleus clusters which represent each of the blood cells, and the data of the individual nucleus clusters are stored together with the associated cytoplasm data in the memory. Cell-characteristic parameter values for each of the blood cells are calculated based on its nucleus and associated cytoplasm data.