An Italian man looked at who owned the land in his country. He found a strange pattern — and today people call it the 80/20 rule.
Harder version: read this lesson at B2 level →
Ten items. Say your answer out loud before you reveal it.
Read the sentence. Say what the word in bold means. Then check.
The words are: rich · complaint · owner. Read the meaning and say the word.
One word fits all three phrases. Say the word.
Read each part. After it, answer the quick check from memory, then discuss one question.
Vilfredo Pareto was born in Paris in 1848. His father was Italian, his mother was French. First he was an engineer: he worked with trains and with metal. He was clever, and he loved to argue about politics.
Then, when he was about forty-five, he changed his job completely. He became an economist — a person who studies money — at a university in Switzerland.
At that time, people argued a lot about money: who has it, and who should have it. Pareto did something different. He did not argue. He collected numbers about land and money in different countries.
1. What was Pareto's first job?
2. What did he become later?
3. What did he do that was different?
1. He was an engineer (trains and metal).
2. An economist — a person who studies money.
3. He collected real numbers instead of only arguing.
The numbers surprised him. In country after country, the picture was the same and very uneven: a small number of people owned most of the land and most of the money.
The famous version of the story says this: in Italy, 20% of the people owned 80% of the land.
Many books add a nice story about his garden: 20% of his pea plants gave him 80% of the peas. It is a lovely story, but there is no good evidence for it. It is probably not true.
Pareto wrote about money. He died in 1923, long before anybody said the words “the 80/20 rule”.
1. What pattern did Pareto find?
2. What is the famous version of the story?
3. Is the garden story true?
1. A small number of people had most of the land and money.
2. In Italy, 20% of people owned 80% of the land.
3. Probably not — there is no good evidence.
Fifty years later, an American engineer called Joseph Juran worked in a big factory. His job was to check products for problems.
He noticed something. The problems were uneven too. A few causes made most of the problems. If the factory fixed those few causes first, most of the problems disappeared.
Juran needed a name for this idea. He remembered Pareto's numbers, and he called it the Pareto principle: the vital few and the useful many. Later, he said honestly that Pareto had never said this about everything — he had only written about money.
Today people use the rule everywhere: in shops, in sport, in schools. But remember: it is a helpful guide, not a law. Sometimes it is 70/30, sometimes 90/10.
1. What did Juran notice in the factory?
2. What name did he give the idea?
3. Is it always exactly 80/20?
1. A few causes made most of the problems.
2. The Pareto principle — “the vital few and the useful many”.
3. No. Sometimes it is 70/30 or 90/10.
Put your problems in order, from big to small. The bars show how many. The red line adds them up. The first few bars are usually most of the problem — the vital few.
A small shop had 200 returns (people bringing things back) last month. Which causes are the vital few — the big ones — and which are the small many?
1. Vital few — more than half of everything.
2. Small many — only 12 of 200.
3. Small many — 16 of 200 — not in the top two.
4. Vital few — 50 + 110 = 160 of 200 = 80%.
5. Small many — 10 of 200.
6. Small many — only 2 — but if it is dangerous, fix it anyway!
It is not a law. Don't push your numbers into 80/20.
Small can be serious. One dangerous problem is more important than a hundred small ones.
Be careful with people. “Most of our money comes from a few customers” can mean a shop stops caring about everybody else.
This rule is about how many and how much. These are the words you need.
Write a few, a little, most, many or much.
1. of the complaints were about slow service — about eighty per cent.
2. There is only milk left. We need to buy some.
3. I don't have time today. Can we meet tomorrow?
4. Only people came — about five.
5. How students are there in your class?
1. Most
2. a little
3. much
4. a few
5. many
Look at the café chart in The Tool tab. Complete the sentences.
1. of the complaints (50 of 100) were about slow service.
2. Only complaints were about parking — four.
3. Two problems together made of the complaints.
4. There were not complaints about Wi-Fi.
1. Half
2. a few
3. most
4. many
Now describe your week: what takes most of your time, and what takes only a little?
Now use the rule in your life. Choose a task and speak. You can start the timer.
Which few things give you most of your results at work or in study?
Think of something that often goes wrong for you. What causes most of it?
Look around your home. Which few things do you use every day? Which do you never use?