Lafayette Parish area

Population and density of Lafayette Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 257,949 people lived in Lafayette Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #287 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #5 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 241,770, the population has grown by 16,179 (+6.7%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 268.8 square miles of land, that is 960 people per square mile (370 per km²), placing Lafayette Parish #198 nationally for density and #4 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 0.667 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Lafayette Parish

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lafayette Parish. Together they are home to 182,929 people (70.9%); the other 75,020 (29.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lafayette city, with 123,311 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Carencro city grew fastest since then (+43.2%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Lafayette Parish. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Lafayette Parish is a central county of the Lafayette, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 4 county equivalents have 423,758 residents on 2,833.7 square miles of land; Lafayette Parish accounts for 9.5% of the land and 60.9% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #104 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #133 by population. It belongs to the Lafayette-New Iberia-Opelousas, LA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

16 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lafayette Parish; 11 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

70501705037050670507705087051770518705207052570529705557055870560705787058370592

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Lafayette Parish

Lafayette Parish shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Lafayette Parish. The largest neighbor is Vermilion Parish (1,172.1 mi²) and the smallest is Iberia Parish (574.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lafayette Parish forms a block of 4,331.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 6.2%.

How big is Lafayette Parish compared with U.S. states?

Lafayette Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 3.8 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 161 areas the size of Lafayette Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 16.4 miles (26.4 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Lafayette Parish?

Lafayette Parish has more land than 357 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Lafayette Parish at #2,902 nationally by total area, 37 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Lafayette Parish in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.