Lafayette metropolitan area, Louisiana

Lafayette, Vermilionville, or the Lafayette metropolitan statistical area per the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is the third largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located in the south central Acadiana region, it covers five parishes. At the 2020 U.S. census, 478,384 people lived in the metropolitan area, making it the 116th most populous in the United States and one of Louisiana's fastest growing metropolises; in 2010, its population was 273,738 and it outpaced the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area in 2015.

The approximately 3,408.5 square miles (8,828 km²) metropolitan area centers on Lafayette Parish, which contains the city of Lafayette—the largest economic and cultural center of Acadiana—with a consolidated city-parish population of 244,390 in 2019; the city proper's population was 121,374 in 2020. Part of the larger Lafayette-Opelousas-Morgan City combined statistical area, it borders the Lake Charles metropolitan area to the west.

As of 2020, the metropolitan statistical area is home to Amazon, IberiaBank (now merged with First Horizon Bank), Rouses Market, Albertsons, Petroleum Helicopters International, and other statewide and international corporations generating a gross domestic product of over 24.9 billion dollars as of 2022. The Lafayette metropolitan area is one of the most predominantly-Catholic metropolises in the Southern United States, and home to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. It is also home to a growing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population.