Who gets invited to apply

Each bar is the total number of people IRCC invited that year, divided by which program they came through. The Canadian Experience Class has dominated in most recent years because it targets people already working in Canada on temporary permits, and that population has grown considerably. The Federal Skilled Worker stream accounts for applicants whose skilled experience was mostly abroad. Provincial Nominee Program rounds appear when provinces and IRCC run aligned category-based draws, which can spike PNP counts significantly in a single year.

The year-to-year swings tell a policy story as much as a talent story. When IRCC wants to hit an annual target, it runs more draws. When it wants to pace to a lower target, it runs fewer. You cannot read much about applicant quality from the total count alone.

These are counts of people, not averages or percentages. The tallest bar is the score band where most invitations landed. What you will notice is that the distribution is not uniform: it tends to cluster just above the cut-off for that year’s draws. When IRCC runs a category-based round with a lower cut-off, a large group of people in a lower score band gets invited at once, which pulls the whole year’s distribution downward.

If you are looking for the score range that actually matters, the cut-off from the most recent draw of your category is the number to watch. This chart is the record of what cleared the bar over the whole year, not just the most recent round.

This shows how many people from each country received an ITA. India and China consistently appear near the top, mainly because they have very large populations working in Canada on temporary permits, many of whom have become CEC-eligible over the years. It reflects who is in the pool, not any preference built into the program. Your country of citizenship does not affect your CRS score or your eligibility.

These are counts of people who were invited with that occupation on their profile. We cannot compare them directly to the number of people in the pool with each occupation, so this is not a conversion rate. What it does show is which occupations appeared most often among the people who actually got an ITA that year.

When IRCC runs a category draw targeting a specific sector (healthcare, STEM, trade occupations), those occupations spike sharply in that year’s data. If your occupation appeared in a targeted category, that is a meaningful advantage that goes beyond your raw CRS score.

This is the academic background of the people receiving invitations, not a requirement. Express Entry does not favour any field; what counts is your CRS score. A concentration here simply reflects who is in the pool.

This is where invited candidates say they intend to settle at the time of invitation, which is not the same as where new permanent residents actually land. For where PRs settle once they arrive, see the settlement map in the main journey.

Express Entry has no age cap, but the CRS awards the most points in the late twenties and tapers after, so invitations concentrate there. Age is one factor among many; a strong profile can offset fewer age points.

Most candidates test in English, but French ability can be decisive: French-language category draws have run at markedly lower CRS cutoffs, so strong French can be one of the highest-leverage ways to improve your odds.

Many invited candidates hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. A Canadian credential can add CRS points a foreign one does not, which is part of why so many candidates study here first, but a foreign degree assessed through an ECA still counts.