How to Make a Pareto Chart (80/20 Analysis)

To make a Pareto chart, open the Pareto Chart Maker and type one category per line as category, count — complaint types, defect types, causes of delays, in any order. The chart sorts them from largest to smallest, adds a cumulative percentage line, and marks the 80% threshold. The "vital few" categories that make up 80% are listed under the chart. Download it as PNG, JPG or SVG.

Make a Pareto chart step by step

1. Open the Pareto Chart Maker.
2. Type or paste the data:

Defect, Count
Scratches, 112
Misaligned labels, 74
Wrong colour, 41
Dents, 28
Missing screws, 17
Loose parts, 11
Packaging damage, 8

1. Under Options:
   • Threshold (%) — 80 by default.
   • Keep top — keep only the largest N categories and fold the rest into "Other" (0 keeps all).
   • Threshold line, Fade categories after the threshold, and Values and percentages.
   • Colours for the Bars and the Cumulative line, and a Left axis title.
2. Read the vital few in the table under the chart, then download the chart.

The Pareto principle

The Pareto principle — the "80/20 rule" — says that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes: most complaints come from a few issues, most defects from a few faults, most sales from a few products. The numbers are rarely exactly 80 and 20, but the pattern is common, and a Pareto chart shows whether it holds for your data.

Reading the chart

• Bars (left axis) show each category's count, largest first.
• The line (right axis) shows the running total as a percentage.
• Where the line crosses 80%, the categories to the left are the vital few — shown in full colour, with the rest faded.

In the example, three defect types of seven account for about 78% of all defects — fix those first.

Where Pareto charts are used

• Quality control and Six Sigma: defect types, root causes.
• Customer support: ticket categories, complaint reasons.
• Lean and operations: causes of downtime, delays and waste.
• Sales: revenue by product or customer.
• Project management: sources of risk or issues.
• Personal productivity: where your time goes.

Tips for useful Pareto charts

• Use counts or costs — counting by cost (time, money) often changes the order: a rare problem can be the most expensive.
• Define categories clearly — overlapping categories split one cause across bars.
• Keep "Other" small and last. If it's large, break it down; the chart always keeps "Other" at the end.
• Recheck after fixing — once the top cause is solved, a new one becomes the biggest.

A worked example

A support team tags 500 tickets by reason. The Pareto chart shows that "password reset", "billing question" and "slow delivery" — three of twelve reasons — make up 76% of tickets. Fixing the password reset flow and adding a billing FAQ would remove more tickets than tackling all the other nine reasons together.

Related charts

• A plain sorted bar chart when you don't need the cumulative line.
• A funnel chart to find where in a process people drop out — then a Pareto chart of the reasons.
• A waterfall chart to explain how a total changed.

Privacy

Your data stays in your browser — nothing is uploaded or stored.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to sort the data?

No — the chart sorts the categories for you.

Can I change the 80% threshold?

Yes — set Threshold (%) to any value, such as 70 or 90.

Can I paste from Excel?

Yes — copy two columns (category and count) and paste them in.