How to create a Pareto Chart in Excel - 80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle

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Roughly 80% of your problems come from about 20% of the causes. A Pareto chart
is how you find out which 20%.

It combines a column chart with a cumulative percentage line, so the few items
driving most of the total become obvious at a glance. In this tutorial we build
one from scratch — sorting the data, adding the cumulative column, and getting
the secondary axis to line up properly.

✅ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
→ What the Pareto Principle actually means in practice
→ Sorting your data in descending order (the step that makes it work)
→ Building a cumulative total with a running sum formula
→ Calculating cumulative percentage using absolute references (F4)
→ Inserting a combo chart with the line on a secondary axis
→ Scaling that axis so the line genuinely reaches 100%
→ Adding data labels and reading the result

📝 THE KEY FORMULA
Cumulative percentage: =SUM($B$2:B2)/SUM($B$2:$B$20)

The mix of absolute and relative references is what makes it expand correctly
as you fill down.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – The Pareto Principle, in plain terms
00:26 – Sorting the data and calculating the total
01:13 – The cumulative total column
02:04 – Cumulative percentage, with absolute references
02:47 – Inserting the combo chart on a secondary axis
03:23 – Data labels, and reading what the chart tells you

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into a decision rather than a picture. 90 lessons, 11 hours.
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👨‍🏫 I'm Andreas, a Microsoft-certified Excel instructor. For 25 years I've
helped people go from "what is Excel?" to real-world mastery — 70,000+
students and counting.

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