Do Actuaries and Data Scientists Qualify for the Visibly STEM Category Draw?
Short answer: whether an actuaries data scientists stem category draw actually includes your job depends on your specific NOC code, not your job title — and that’s the part most people skip before deciding they do or don’t qualify.
Why job titles are the wrong place to start
IRCC’s STEM occupations category is built around a published list of 11 specific National Occupational Classification (NOC) codes, not a general sense of what counts as “STEM work.” A title like actuary or data scientist can map to one of several possible NOC codes depending on the actual duties, seniority and industry of the role — and only some of those codes may be the ones IRCC actually lists. This research pass didn’t verify the full 11-occupation STEM list against current IRCC pages in enough detail to say either way, so this article isn’t going to guess which specific titles made the cut.
Is actuary a STEM occupation express entry candidates can rely on?
Is actuary a stem occupation express entry applicants can count on including? The honest answer is: check, don’t assume. The same goes the other way — data scientist noc code stem category matching isn’t guaranteed just because the job sounds technical. NOC codes are assigned by task and duty descriptions, and two people with the same job title at different companies can genuinely sit under different codes.
What we do know about the category itself
The STEM occupations category currently requires at least 12 months of full-time (or equivalent part-time) work experience in a single listed occupation, gained either in Canada or abroad, within the past three years — a threshold IRCC raised from six months to twelve in February 2026. What’s also worth knowing before getting invested in this category specifically: STEM hasn’t had a single round in 2025 or all of 2026 to date, even though it remains a listed, technically active category. That’s a very different situation from French-language proficiency or healthcare and social services, which have both drawn repeatedly and recently.
The STEM category eligible occupations list, and how to check it properly
The stem category eligible occupations list is published directly on IRCC’s category-based selection page, matched against specific NOC codes rather than job titles. The right process is: start with your own NOC code, not your job title — cross-check it against Canada’s official occupational classification system, then compare that code to the current STEM list on IRCC’s site, not against a job-title description in a blog post, this one included.
What this means practically
Even a confirmed STEM eligibility doesn’t currently translate into an active draw, given the drought since 2024. Building a strategy around STEM alone, on the current record, means building around a category that technically exists but isn’t currently being used. That’s the real shape of any actuaries data scientists stem category draw question: it’s a NOC-matching exercise, not a title-matching one — worth discussing with a licensed RCIC if it’s central to your plan.
Our free Express Entry Explained guide covers which categories are actively drawing right now, which matters more day to day than which ones exist on paper.