Pareto Contribution Calculator

Work out pareto contribution instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Pareto Contribution Calculator

Pareto analysis ranks categories by frequency and reads the cumulative share, looking for the vital few that account for most of the problem. When two of four categories carry 70-80% of occurrences, effort concentrated there returns far more than spreading it evenly.

Formula

Pareto share

Category share % = category count x 100 / total; cumulative share adds ranked categories in order

Worked example

With the default values below, Pareto Contribution Calculator returns Share Of Top Two Categories of 75.56%. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Category 1 Countminimum 0: 420
Category 2 Countminimum 0: 260
Category 3 Countminimum 0: 140
Category 4 Countminimum 0: 80

Results

Share Of Top Two Categories: 75.56%
Largest Category Share: 46.67%
Total Occurrences: 900
Cumulative Share Of Top Three: 91.11%

Step by step

1Values used
2Pareto share
3Share Of Top Two Categories= 75.56
4Largest Category Share= 46.67
5Total Occurrences= 900
6Cumulative Share Of Top Three= 91.11

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should frequency or cost be used?

Cost or impact, wherever it can be estimated. A frequent trivial defect can rank above a rare catastrophic one on count alone, which sends improvement effort to the wrong place.

What if the distribution is flat?

Then there is no vital few, and the categorisation is probably too coarse or too fine. Re-stratify by a different factor — machine, shift, material lot — until a pattern emerges.