BACKGROUND: Physicians generally have no concern with the precise evaluation of the olfactory sense of their patients, although olfactory impairment is one of the first manifestations of several diseases including Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's diseases. Accurate population-based data on the olfactory function of healthy individuals are needed to provide a baseline for evaluating patients with olfactory disorders. Methods Non-probabilistic, population-based samples were obtained from a public institution attended by large numbers of people of various socio-economic strata, in this study conducted from December 2011 to August 2012. Normative tables of normal olfactory function were generated for people of either gender, stratified in 5-year age groups starting from the age group of 20-24 years. The influence of economic status, educational level, and smoking habits on olfactory function was analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: One thousand eight hundred and twenty volunteers participated in the study but data from only 1578 of them were included in the normative tables. Data from 242 volunteers had to be excluded because of any one or more of the following conditions: upper respiratory tract infection on the day of examination, history of head trauma, complaints of olfactory or taste impairment, probable dementia, and other psychiatric and neurological diseases. A lower economic status negatively influenced the test score (p < 0.001), while a higher educational status had a positive impact (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: There exist rapid methods to generate population-based normative tables of olfactory function. Correction factors are necessary to achieve perfect equivalence between similar norms around the world, but the norms of the original site of test development should be the gold standard. Low economic and educational statuses have a negative influence on olfactory performance.