You use target weighting (sometimes referred to as cell target weighting) when you know the number or proportion of respondents in each of the population groups on which you are basing your weighting. Just as with factor weighting, it is easiest to visualize this using a table or weighting matrix. (For more information, see Factor weighting). You use target weighting when you know the total number or proportion of respondents that you want to appear in each cell of the table.

For example, suppose you interviewed 600 respondents, and you want to weight the results so that the gender and age groups carry equal weight. You could do this using target weights by specifying the number of respondents in each cell. By default, the numbers specified for each cell are taken to be the total weighted value for that cell. However, if you use the option to weight to a total value or to the unweighted count of cases, the values are interpreted as proportions.