Almost half of England's school districts will have more primary pupils than places within two years, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
Some local areas will face a 20% shortfall in places by 2015, according to analysis of official data from 2012.
The squeeze has been attributed to the rising birth rate and to immigration.
The government said it had more than doubled funding for new school places, but local authorities want more control over how that money is spent.
The LGA's warning comes as the government opens 93 free schools, raising the total to 174 and providing 43,000 new school places.
'Desperate shortage'According to the Office for National Statistics, more babies were born in the UK in 2011-12 than any year since 1972.
In the same year, 165,600 more people came to the UK than left - contributing to an overall rise in UK population of 419,900.
The LGA's analysis of local authority data on school-place needs suggests about 1,000 of the 2,277 local school planning districts will be over-capacity by 2015-16.
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End Quote Michael Gove Education SecretaryWe have more than doubled funding for new school places"
The greatest pressure is focused on about 99 districts, where 20% more pupils are predicted than places.
But as the analysis is based on the latest ratified official figures, submitted in 2012-13, it may not take into account more recent steps to increase school capacity.
Overall, two thirds of local authorities are predicting they will have more pupils than places by the beginning of the 2016 academic year.
Some 40 local councils are predicted to be 10% over capacity, with 15 of those predicting a 20% surplus of pupils over places.
Peterborough, Redbridge, Ealing, Bristol, Lewisham, Slough, Maidenhead, Sutton, and Barking and Dagenham will have to increase the number of school places by at least 20% to ensure every child gets a place, the LGA said.
LGA chairman David Simmonds said councils were facing "unprecedented pressures" in tackling the "desperate shortage" of new school places.
Some schools have already converted music rooms, libraries - even a police station in one case - into classrooms.
'Shovels and diggers'The LGA is calling for the Department for Education (DfE) to work more closely with local councils, so planning for emerging demand can be better managed.
Free schools and academies are approved directly by the DfE, and councils say this can limit their ability to plan strategically, especially as they have no powers to force such schools to expand or close in response to changes in demand.
Most of the free schools opening this year are in areas under pressure, but five appear to be in areas forecast to have surplus places several years from now.
Most overstretched areas
- Peterborough
- Redbridge
- Ealing
- Bristol
- Lewisham
- Slough
- Maidenhead
- Sutton
- Barking and Dagenham
Mr Simmonds said free schools were "a pretty small part of the overall picture", but parents in hard-pressed areas would understandably ask why money was being spent on additional surplus places in free schools in areas where there were already vacancies.
He said the key thing was to ensure that £5bn recently made available by the government to boost capacity was spent quickly and efficiently in the areas where it was most needed.
"We need to make sure that money comes through the local authority who are often ready with their shovels and diggers to get work under way immediately."
The LGA also says the fact that the DfE has used four different methods for funding school places since 2007 has led to a piecemeal approach - and all the money should, in future, come from a single pot.
Bob Garton, head of Gascoigne Primary in Barking, east London, said his school had taken on an extra 400 pupils in the past five years.
"I think Barking and Dagenham have a particular problem. We're at the forefront of the population boom," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
'Swift action'The government and Labour blamed each other for the situation.
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Councillor David Simmonds, LGA: "Mums and dads want to know that there's a good quality school in their neighbourhood"
Education Secretary Michael Gove said the coalition had "taken swift action to repair the damage" left by Labour, accusing Ed Miliband of being "too weak to stand up to the unions and back free schools".
"We have more than doubled funding for new school places and we are also setting up great new free schools, which are giving parents a choice of high quality school places in areas Labour neglected," he said.
But shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg said the crisis was of David Cameron's own making.
"In choosing to prioritise school capital funding in areas with surplus places through his free schools programme, David Cameron is showing he is out of touch with the needs of ordinary people by failing to meet basic need for school places."
The New Schools Network, which helps groups set up their own schools, said free schools were well on track to deliver more than 250,000 new places by 2015.
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