Cryopreservation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) is crucial for cord blood (CB) banking and transplantation. We evaluated recovery of functional HPC cryopreserved as mononuclear or unseparated cells for up to 23.5 years compared with prefreeze values of the same CB units. Highly efficient recovery (80%-100%) was apparent for granulocyte-macrophage and multipotential hematopoietic progenitors, although some collections had reproducible low recovery. Proliferative potential, response to multiple cytokines, and replating of HPC colonies was extensive. CD34(+) cells isolated from CB cryopreserved for up to 21 years had long-term (≥ 6 month) engrafting capability in primary and secondary immunodeficient mice reflecting recovery of long-term repopulating, self-renewing HSCs. We recovered functionally responsive CD4(+) and CD8(+) T lymphocytes, generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with differentiation representing all 3 germ cell lineages in vitro and in vivo, and detected high proliferative endothelial colony forming cells, results of relevance to CB biology and banking.