The Pareto Principle or the 80/20 [1] rule as it has often been called, was first noted in 1906 by economist Wilfredo Pareto while he was studying the wealth distributions of people. Apparently, 80% of a nations wealth was in the early 1900s controlled by 20% of the population. Since then, the Principle has been popularized in management theory and is applied in all sorts of domains. Take for instance blog entries such as this [3].
It seems that 100 years later the relationship has become even more differentiated. According to [2] 10% of the worlds population control 85% of the wealth. Hence, if Pareto had lived today, the Pareto principle would have been called the 85/10 rule.
[1] Pareto Principle - an explanation of the Pareto principle and further reads.
[2] UN study of the wealth distribution in the world - ppt of some very interesting figures.
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