Nexia SAB&T on 09/01/2023 In 1897, Vilfredo Pareto, and Italian economist, observed that the distribution of wealth was unequal within every country. That is, 5% of the population might own 50% of the wealth, 10% of the population might have 65% and 20% might own 80%. Whilst this is not very remarkable (we see it all the time) what Pareto discovered was that this pattern repeated itself in almost every country he examined.[i] Consequently, he concluded that there was a predictable mathematical relationship at work that determined the distribution of wealth: in short, 20% of the population would hold 80% of the wealth.