Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the federal government's Centre for Population projections, released on Thursday, were consistent with figures since the release of the 2021 census, which showed previous estimates had significantly underestimated Canberra's population.

Almost 100,000 more people will be living in the ACT in a decade's time, driven by a student-led rebound in overseas migration, the centre's report predicted.

The centre predicted 550,000 people would call Canberra home in 2032-33 - a nearly 70,000-person increase on its own estimates from a year ago.

"The ACT currently has 2.5 people per dwelling, but we had sufficient supply through the 5 years between 2016 and 2021 to accommodate 2.4 people per additional dwelling," Mr Barr said.

"This data shows that housing supply is just ahead of population growth, despite the substantial increase in population."

The 2021 census revealed estimates of the ACT's population were 20,000 people short. Mr Barr said last month he was still working with the Australian Bureau of Statistics to improve future population estimates.

The census revealed the ACT's population had surged to 454,499 people on the night of the 2021 census, up 14.4 per cent from the last count in 2016.

Professor Peter McDonald, emeritus professor of demography at the Australian National University, said the undercount was primarily due to an underestimation of people aged between 20 and 40 moving into the capital, a result of poor data for internal migration.

"Another interesting thing about Canberra is that if you look back across time it tends to grow more rapidly when there's a [federal] Labor government and less rapidly when there's not a Labor government, and that's about the size of the public service I suppose," Professor McDonald said.

"With a Labor government at the moment, I think we can expect Canberra to keep growing."

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Professor McDonald said the population projections were broadly consistent over the last decade, which had given planners and governments time to consider what infrastructure would be needed to support larger cities.

"Canberra has a long history of planning, probably better than other places. I remember the water supply for Canberra being planned for a population of half a million maybe 30 years ago. So they got it right," he said.

However, Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the population projects showed the ACT government had failed over more than two decades in power to adequately plan for population growth.

"The Canberra Liberals have continually called on Labor and the Greens to release more land to provide that choice but the fact remains they are wedded to an infill policy that is not meeting the needs of Canberrans," Ms Lee said.

"A clear lack of housing choice and a failure to keep up with demand in areas such as health, education, public housing, community safety and basic city services has not happened overnight. It is the result of over two decades of neglect by this government."

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