Compare and rank
Pareto chart
Sorts magnitudes from largest to smallest and overlays their cumulative percentage.
- Chart
- Ranking
- Composition
What it answers
Which few categories account for most of the total?
- Shape
- Descending bars and cumulative line
- What it shows
- Concentration and diminishing additional contribution.
Example
The question
Which few complaint types cause most of our complaints?
Complaints by type, 2025, with cumulative share
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Prioritising large contributors to a problem or workload.
Avoid it when
Negative contributions or a cumulative total without a clear denominator.
How to read it
Read descending bars, then the cumulative-percentage line.
Note
Calculate cumulative percentages after sorting.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: number
- One row is
- One category and its measured or aggregated value. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Optional
- Optional Series or label. Wide alternative: one category column plus one value column per series.
- Preparation
- Aggregate nonnegative category values, sort descending and calculate cumulative value divided by the overall total.
- Units
- Bars use native units. Cumulative line is cumulative amount divided by all included category amounts.
Worked example
Data B45, A30, C25, total 100. Sort bars. Cumulative shares are 45%,75%,100%; the top two account for 75%.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 30 |
| B | 45 |
| C | 25 |