Express Entry Year-End Report 2024: Fact sheet
Launched in 2015, Express Entry is Canada’s flagship application management system for three federal high-skilled (FHS) permanent economic immigration programs (the Federal Skilled Worker Program [FSWP], Federal Skilled Trades Program [FSTP] and Canadian Experience Class [CEC] and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Program [PNP]). Express Entry is an effective tool to bring in workers with skills and attributes needed to respond to Canada’s evolving economic needs and help address labour market shortages.
Changes to Express Entry in 2024
Consultations on CBS categories: From July 10 to August 16, 2023, the Department held a public consultation on immigration levels which included questions specific to Express Entry and category-based selection. An online survey was made available to the public on IRCC’s website, and 4,780 stakeholder organizations across Canada were invited by email to take part.
Following a review of data, labour market information, engagement with federal, provincial and territorial partners as well as stakeholder consultations, the Minister established six categories for year 2024 designed to support economic growth through Francophone immigration outside Quebec and help address long-term labour market shortages.
Candidates with French-language proficiency or with work experience in the occupations that were eligible under the following categories were invited to apply for permanent residence through category-based selection in 2024:
- French-language proficiency
- Healthcare occupations
- Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
- Trade occupations
- Transport occupations
- Agriculture and agri-food occupations
For the occupation-based categories, candidates needed to have continuous experience, obtained over a period that meets or exceeds six months in the past three-year period, in one of the eligible occupations that were part of the categories.
Who was invited to apply for permanent residence through Express Entry?
In 2024, 468,073 profiles were created through Express Entry, with 73% of the profiles eligible for at least one of the FHS immigration programs managed by the system. Among the submitted eligible profiles, 45% of all eligible profiles submitted qualified for category-based selection criteria. Among the eligible profiles submitted to Express Entry, 19% qualified for the STEM category, 9% qualified for the French-language proficiency category, around 10% qualified for the healthcare category, 3% for transport category and 4% for trade category and around 1% for agriculture and agri-food category.
Through 52 rounds of invitations, IRCC issued 98, 903 invitations in 2024, a decrease of 11, 363 invitations issued in 2023, in line with the decrease in admission levels. The majority of invitations to apply for permanent residence were issued to candidates under CEC, followed by PNP, and FSWP. Furthermore, IRCC held 19 category-based selection rounds from January, 2024 to December 2024. The Department issued 43,475 ITAs through category-based selection rounds, representing 43% of the total number of ITAs issued in 2024.
Comprehensive Ranking System scores of eligible candidates in the pool remained consistently concentrated in the 301–500 range, meaning that they consistently demonstrate high levels of human capital. For instance in 2024, 91% of invitees claimed a post-secondary educational credential of at least three years. Express Entry continues to bring in skilled workers with strong proficiency skills in official languages and attracting more French-speaking immigrants to Francophone minority communities outside of Quebec.
What were the most common primary occupations among those invited to apply?
Express Entry continues to support Canada’s technology sector by bringing in skilled workers with in-demand skills that can drive the sector forward and meet Canada’s innovation priorities. However, 2024 saw more diversity among the top 5 occupations across sectors that includes software engineers and designers, food service supervisors, software developers and programmers, administrative assistants and secondary school teachers. These occupations help to address Canada’s long-term labour shortages.
What was the province or territory of destination of principal applicants?
Express Entry continues to support provinces and territories by bringing in skilled workers. In 2024, Ontario remained the most popular province among principal applicants, followed by British Columbia and Alberta. These have been the top provinces of destination over the past three years.
How long did it take to process Express Entry applications?
In 2024, IRCC met its processing standard for 2024 by finalizing 80% of all applications for Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker Program in 6 months. This is in line with year 2023 but a significant decrease from 2022, highlighting IRCC’s operations and processing capacity’s recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. Provincial Nominee Program-nominated Express Entry candidate processing has seen a reduction from 7 months in 2023 to 6 months in 2024. The processing times for all Express Entry programs except Federal Skilled Trades Program consistently decreased from 2022 to 2024.
What were the economic outcomes of applicants?
The median employment earnings for Express Entry federal high-skilled principal applicants, with the earliest cohort being admitted to Canada in 2017, show an annual increase in employment earnings in the five years since the applicants were admitted to Canada. For example, for the 2017 admission cohort, the median employment income was $58,700 in 2018 (at one year since admission), and increased to $82,000 in 2022 (five years since admission).
When compared to Canadian median employment earnings, all EE cohorts of permanent residents have significantly higher median employment earnings.
Next steps
In 2024, in its ninth year of operation, the Express Entry application management system continued to provide a pathway to permanent residence for a range of highly-skilled candidates who demonstrated the potential to successfully integrate and contribute to Canada’s economy.
The Department will continue to monitor Express Entry and category-based selection to explore ways the system could be used to ensure that Canada continues to derive maximum benefit from economic immigration to select for high human capital as well as respond to long-term labour shortages in a rapidly evolving environment.