January 2025: State of the Express Entry pool

After a slower December of Express Entry draws, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has already begun issuing Invitations to Apply (ITAs) through Express Entry this year, as the department looks to meet its landings target for 2025.

Established patterns in Express Entry draw types—particularly the prioritization of candidates in enhanced Provincial Nominee Programs (PNPs), and those with French-language proficiency—continued to be present last month and can inform expectations of which candidates IRCC is likely to invite in the future.

December 2024 saw only three draws take place, contrasting with November and October, each of which saw six Express Entry selections.

This article will review the draws that occurred in the previous month, as well as the composition of the Express Entry pool at the start of 2025.

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What draws took place in December 2024?

IRCC conducted three Express Entry draws in December: two selections were held for candidates in Express Entry-aligned PNPs, with the remaining draw inviting candidates with French-language proficiency.

In total 2,561 ITAs were issued in December.

The number of ITAs issued in December was again in contrast to both November and October:

A summary of Express Entry draws in December can be found below:

The draw types present in December can be explained by broader trends in the Express Entry system last year.

PNP and French-language proficiency candidates saw continued emphasis in Express Entry selections throughout the latter half of 2024, with the system consistently averaging roughly two PNP draws and at least one French language draw a month.

The prevalence of these two draw types in recent months aligns with the establishment of the new “In-Canada Focus” allocation under the 2025-2027 Immigration Levels Plan, and Canada’s commitment to increasing Francophone immigration outside of Quebec.

Canadian Experience Class (CEC) draws (which make up a portion of IRCC’s “In-Canada Focus” category) were absent in December of 2024—again a contrast to previous months, in which the department issued invitations to CEC candidates at a comparable rate to PNP nominees in the Express Entry system.

While some analysts have speculated that this pause is due to the pending removal of Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points allocated for valid job offers, IRCC has not confirmed that this is the case.

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

As of January 8, 2025 (the date of the most recent data available) the composition of the Express Entry pool is as follows:

This data is also presented as a bar graph below for better visualization:

Of note is that since the previously reported numbers on December 16, 2024, there has been an increase of 6,453 candidate profiles in the Express Entry pool, 52% of which scored within the 501-600 CRS score range.

How do scores in the Express Entry pool rank against each other?

The following table shows the distribution of scores within the Express Entry candidate pool (as of January 8), along with their percentile range, and the percentage of the overall candidate pool within that score range.

Candidates in the Express Entry pool can use this information to get a better idea of their competitiveness within the Express Entry system. While there are a number of factors that can influence Express Entry draws, a key determinator of the CRS cut-off for an Express Entry selection is the composition of the candidate pool at the time of the draw (with higher scores always more likely to receive an ITA).

Percentile scores were calculated for the upper boundary of each score range, showing the proportion of candidates (relative to the total number in the pool below that score). Due to the fact that IRCC data is presented through score ranges, a range is given for the percentiles to better align percentiles with the corresponding CRS score range.

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