Table 2 Saaty’s 1-9 Scale of Pairwise Comparisons19.
Intensity of importance | Definition | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
1 | Equal importance | Two activities contribute equally to the objective. |
3 | Weak importance of one over another | Experience and judgment slightly favor one activity over another. |
5 | Essential or strong importance | Experience and judgment strongly favor one activity over another. |
7 | Demonstrated importance | An activity is strongly favored and its dominance is demonstrated in practice. |
9 | Absolute importance | The evidence favoring one activity over another is of the highest possible order of affirmation. |
2,4,6,8 | Intermediate values between the two adjacent judgments | When compromise is needed. |
Reciprocals | Inverse comparison | If activity i has one of the above nonzero numbers assigned to it when compared with activity j, then j has the reciprocal value when compared with i . |
