| Intensity of Importance | Definition | Explanation |
| 1 | Equal Importance | Two activities contribute equally to the objective |
| 2 | Weak or slight |
|
| 3 | Moderate importance | Experience and judgement slightly favour one activity over another |
| 4 | Moderate plus |
|
| 5 | Strong importance | Experience and judgement strongly favour one activity over another |
| 6 | Strong plus |
|
| 7 | Very strong or demonstrated importance | An activity is favoured very strongly over another; its dominance demonstrated in practice |
| 8 | Very, very strong |
|
| 9 | Extreme importance | The evidence favouring one activity over another is of the highest possible order of affirmation |
| Reciprocals of above | If activity i has one of the above non-zero numbers assigned to it when compared with activity j, then j has the reciprocal value when compared with i. | A reasonable assumption |