November 2024: Express Entry Pool Status

Following a slowdown in Express Entry applications in September, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has increased the frequency of screening federal immigration applicants during October.

In addition to this, IRCC has also held a second Express Entry Occupation Screening in 2024, the first for this group since July this year.

In this article, we will review the draw that took place in October and discuss the composition of the Express Entry candidate pool in early November.

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Current State of the Express Entry Pool

What draws took place in October?

It was six in October Express entry The draws are held in four different streams and categories of choice.

The Immigration Department issued 5961 invitations to apply (ITA) for permanent residence (PR) through these drawings, which corresponds to 5,911 ITAs issued in the previous month.

Due to the same number of ITAs issued across a larger number of circulations, circulation sizes in October tended to be smaller than in September. Comprehensive rating system (CRS) passing scores for each draw have also increased compared to September.

The following table details the October Express Entry drawings:

IRCC has maintained its practice of regularly inviting candidates from the CEC, PNP and Francophone categories into the Express Entry pool to apply for PR. The Immigration Department has been continuously selecting candidates in these categories/streams since July this year.

IRCC has also indicated in their new Immigration Tiers Plan that they will continue to give priority to these applicants when selecting PRs through the federal Express Entry system.

Although the number of ITAs issued in October was slightly higher than in September, it still reflects a decrease in the total number of ITAs issued compared to previous months:

Month	ITAs released
July	25 125
August	10,384
September	5,911
October	5,961

What is the current distribution of points in the Express Entry pool?

As of October 22 (the date of the last Express Entry drawing at the time of writing), the distribution of candidate scores in the Express Entry pool is as follows:

CRS Score Range	Number of candidates
0-300	5,462
301-350	22,928
351-400	51,048
401-410	10,871
411-420	11,071
421-430	10,583
431-440	12,047
441-450	10,931
451-460	11 306
461-470	12 900
471-480	14,914
481-490	12 240
491-500	11,925
501-600	13 430
601-1200	124
General	211 780

This data is also presented as a histogram for further visualization:

How do the scores in the pool rank relative to each other?

The following table uses percentile scores to provide a clearer understanding of how specific CRS scores rank in the overall distribution of CRS scores in the Express Entry candidate pool.

We calculated a percentile score for the high end of each CRS score range, representing the proportion of candidates with scores at or below that threshold relative to the total number in the pool.

Because IRCC data are presented in ranges, we calculated the percentile only for the highest CRS score in each range.

Below are the percentile ranges for the highest scores in each range declared by IRCC, as well as the percentage of candidates scoring in each percentile range:

CRS Score Range	Number of candidates	Percentile range	Percent
0-300	5,462	0 – 2.58%	2.58%
301-350	22,928	2.58 – 13.41%	10.83%
351-400	51,048	13.41 – 37.51%	24.10%
401-410	10,871	37.51 – 42.64%	5.13%
411-420	11,071	42.64 – 47.87%	5.23%
421-430	10,583	47.87 – 52.87%	5.00%
431-440	12,047	52.87 – 58.56%	5.69%
441-450	10,931	58.56 – 63.72%	5.16%
451-460	11 306	63.27 – 69.06%	5.34%
461-470	12 900	69.06 – 75.15%	6.09%
471-480	14,914	75.15 – 82.19%	7.04%
481-490	12 240	82.19 – 87.97%	5.78%
491-500	11,925	87.97 – 93.60%	5.63%
501-600	13 430	93.60 – 99.94%	6.34%
601-1200	124	99.94 – 100.00%	0.06%

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