Value of the data•Segmentation and spatial normalization of brain MR imaging data routinely makes use of reference, or template brains, which have to be appropriate for the dataset under study•Instead of simply averaging participant's data, template creation can also be achieved using statistical regression approaches, which allow for taking into account key demographic and technical predictors of the dataset•For high-dimensional warping approaches such as the popular DARTEL or SHOOT algorithm, a large population is needed to create high-quality templates, which is not always available especially for “unusual” populations such as infants and older participants•This dataset is the result of analyzing a large population of healthy subjects using a multivariate adaptive regression splines approach, allowing for the customized creation of high-quality sets of brain templates to be used within the DARTEL/SHOOT framework•Such externally-generated but matched templates are particularly useful when only a small and/or “unusual” dataset is available for study