Express Entry Invited Candidates Data Observatory: Program and Intended Province Trends

A reproducible transformation of IRCC’s official Express Entry invited-candidate dataset, organized by intended province or territory and the source field called “Invitation Category.”

Research by: Usman Khalil, RCIC R709592 | CPA Ontario C83028834.

What this dataset tracks

The source reports invited Express Entry candidates by intended province or territory and invitation category. IRCC suppresses values from 0 to 5 as “–” and rounds all other published values to the nearest multiple of 5. This observatory never imputes suppressed cells and never manufactures a zero where a category row is absent.

For the broader source-linked immigration data hub, see MAK’s Immigration Data Observatory.

Government of Canada dataset record · Exact IRCC resource

2026 YTD snapshot

These are sums of IRCC’s published rounded cells through July 31, 2026, not exact unrounded ITA counts. The 2026 source rows in this build contain no suppressed “–” cells.

2026 YTD by intended province or territory

Annual invitation-category summary, 2015–2026 YTD

Each cell is the sum of disclosed numeric source cells. “supp.” means one or more underlying cells were suppressed by IRCC, so the displayed numeric sum is a published-known lower bound. An em dash means that category was not present in the source for that year; it is not a manufactured zero.

Download the cleaned data and workbook

Cite this resource

Suggested citation: Usman Khalil, “Express Entry Invited Candidates Data Observatory: Program and Intended Province Trends,” MAK Canadian Immigration Services, version 2026-09-26, updated 3 October 2026. https://makimmigration.ca/express-entry-invited-candidates-program-province/. Version DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23119703.

@dataset{khalil2026expressentryobservatory,
  author = {Khalil, Usman},
  title = {Express Entry Invited Candidates Data Observatory: Program and Intended Province Trends},
  publisher = {MAK Canadian Immigration Services},
  year = {2026},
  version = {2026-09-26},
  url = {https://makimmigration.ca/express-entry-invited-candidates-program-province/},
  doi = {10.5281/zenodo.23119703},
  note = {Source data: Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada / Government of Canada Open Government Portal}
}

TY  - DATA
AU  - Khalil, Usman
TI  - Express Entry Invited Candidates Data Observatory: Program and Intended Province Trends
PY  - 2026
PB  - MAK Canadian Immigration Services
UR  - https://makimmigration.ca/express-entry-invited-candidates-program-province/
DO  - 10.5281/zenodo.23119703
Y2  - 2026/10/03
ER  -

Methodology and interpretation controls

The workbook preserves the original bilingual source rows verbatim in Source_Raw. The cleaned dataset uses English labels, the raw published total, a numeric total only when the value is disclosed, and an explicit suppression flag. Derived summaries sum numeric disclosed cells only and count suppressed cells separately.

The IRCC resource uses a .csv extension but the retrieved official source is tab-delimited. The cleaned CSV is a MAK transformation and does not replace or alter the Government of Canada source.

Correction policy

If MAK identifies a factual, transcription or transformation error in this observatory or its downloadable files, the affected public file or page will be corrected and the change will be recorded in the change log below. Changes made by IRCC to the underlying source will be recorded as source updates rather than silently treated as MAK corrections. Suppressed values remain suppressed unless the official source itself changes.

Change log

4 October 2026: Publisher Data Pack added with four stable figure IDs, inline publication-grade SVG charts, direct SVG/CSV downloads, underlying figure tables, source/coverage controls and copy-ready attribution. Existing R03 source data and statistical claims were not changed.

3 October 2026: Open Government metadata rechecked; Date Modified and Record Modified remain 15 September 2026 and temporal coverage remains through 31 July 2026. Stable public CSV/XLSX distribution URLs, citation formats, Usman attribution, correction policy and Dataset metadata added; underlying research data and statistical claims unchanged.

30 September 2026: Open Government metadata rechecked: Date Modified and Record Modified remain 15 September 2026 and temporal coverage remains through 31 July 2026. Publication package QA completed; cleaned CSV and XLSX were verified against the retained DA-R03 source artifacts before publication.

29 September 2026: Open Government metadata rechecked. Record still shows Date Modified and Record Modified as 15 September 2026, so the 26 September artifact build remains current; canonical MAK resource published and publicly QA’d.

26 September 2026: Initial 471-row cleaned dataset and reproducible workbook created from the IRCC Province/Territory × Invitation Category resource.

Authority accounting: publication on MAK is DELIVERY. It is not recorded as an independent domain-authority gain unless an external organization independently cites, links to or adopts the resource.