September 2024: State of the Express Entry pool

After a busy August, and a historic number of draws throughout July, Canada’s Express Entrysystem has seen changes in the composition of the candidate pool—and in the newcomers who have received invitations to apply (ITAs) for permanent residence (PR).

To better inform candidates within the Express Entry pool, and those interested in Canadian immigration, the following breaks down the current composition of the pool—as well as tracking cut-off scores for different draws throughout the last month.

The current state of the Express Entry pool

What draws occurred in August?

August saw five Express Entry draws throughout the month, issuing more than 10,000 ITAs as Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada(IRCC) returned to the established pattern of holding Express Entry draws every other week.

Draw Number Date Round Type ITAs Issued Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) cut-off score
312 27/08/24 Canadian Express Class (CEC) 3,300 507
311 26/08/24 Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) 1,121 694
310 15/08/24 Category Based Selection (CBS): French Language proficiency 2,000 394
309 14/08/24 CEC 3,200 509
308 13/08/24 PNP 763 690

The draws that occurred in August reflect changes announced by the Minister of Immigration Marc Miller. For example, the prevalence of CEC and PNP draws follows statements made by Miller last March, when the Minister declared his intention to pursue more “domestic” draws through the federal immigration system. Miller added in the same press conference that he would request his provincial counterparts to do the same with Canada’s PNPs.

The rationale for this move was to reduce burdens on housing stock, and potential impacts on affordability by not adding new immigrants to Canada. Rather, the department is working on prioritizing people are already in Canada as temporary residents (primarily those on a work permit), who are eligible to transition to PR. This will also help IRCC meet its annual immigration target for permanent residents.

Additionally, Canada has recently emphasized the importance of Francophone immigration to the country, announcing that it will increase the percentage allocation of Francophone immigrants destined for provinces outside of Quebec within yearly targets. This percentage allocation will increase from 6% this year, to 7% in 2025, and 8% in 2026. This year has seen seven French language proficiency draws, issuing over 19,000 ITAs so far in 2024.

What is the distribution of scores in the pool currently?

As of August 27th (the date of the most recent draw at the time of writing), the breakdown of scores within the Express Entry pool:

CRS score range Number of candidates
0-300 5,491
301-350 24,396
351-400 52,363
401-410 10,155
411-420 10,493
421-430 9,814
431-440 11,142
441-450 10,259
451-460 10,779
461-470 12,676
471-480 14,722
481-490 12,038
491-500 10,918
501-600 9,764
601-1200 127

The above data has also been presented as a bar graph for easier visualization:

A chart showing the distribution of scores within the Express Entry pool as of August 27th 2024

This graph showcases the distribution of scores within the Express Entry pool

How does each score compare to the overall distribution?

The below table takes the top end of each CRS score range, and assigns it a percentile with the assumption that the top-most score will contain the total number of candidates within the score range (for example, within the 0-300 score range, it is assumed that candidates with score of 300 have 5,491 candidates (the total number of candidates in that score range) in the Express Entry pool with lower scores than them).

CRS score range Number of candidates Percentile (%)
0-300 5,491 2.68
301-350 24,396 14.57
351-400 52,363 40.10
401-410 10,155 45.04
411-420 10,493 50.20
421-430 9,814 55.00
431-440 11,142 60.40
441-450 10,259 65.40
451-460 10,779 70.60
461-470 12,676 76.80
471-480 14,722 84.00
481-490 12,038 90.00
491-500 10,918 95.18
501-600 9,764 99.93
601-1200 127 100
Total 205,137

As we can see from the current distribution, half of the candidates in the Express Entry pool currently have a CRS score of 420 or lower.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Need Help?