| Intensity of Importance | Description |
| 1 | Equal importance |
| 3 | Moderate importance of one factor over another |
| 5 | Strong or essential importance |
| 7 | Very strong or demonstrated importance |
| 9 | Extreme importance |
| 2, 4, 6, 8 | Intermediate values between two adjacent assessments |
| Reciprocals | Values of inverse comparison: if factor z has one of the above numbers assigned to it when compared with factor y, then a reversed comparison means that y would have the reciprocal. |