Introduction: Reference values are required for interpretation of complete blood count, in a way they can guide clinical and epidemiological decisions based on the specific characteristics of the population, which they will be applied. Aim: To determine the reference values for blood cell count parameters in healthy people from Medellin, 2012. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross sectional study in 70 repetitive blood donors, and 65 vegetarians. Samples were processed in the Sysmex XE-2100® hematology analyzer. The description was performed with frequency and summary measures, and reference values were determined with 95% confidence intervals for the mean; in addition, reference values were compared by sex and age. Results: We found statistically significant differences between the donors and vegetarians for hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count, platelet count, and mean platelet volume. The reference values obtained from the study population showed a strong association with sex but not with the age group. Conclusions: The current results and those derived of other studies show the differences in reference values that can be found for some hematological parameters, which reinforces the need to set values according to clinical and epidemiological profile of each region.