Lake Charles metropolitan area in the context of Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Lake Charles (French: Lac-Charles) is the fifth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcasieu Parish, it is a major industrial, cultural, and educational center in the southwest region of the state. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Lake Charles's population was 84,872.

The city and metropolitan area of Lake Charles is considered a regionally significant center of petrochemical refining, gambling, tourism, and education, being home to McNeese State University and Sowela Technical Community College. Because of the lakes and waterways throughout the city, metropolitan Lake Charles is often called the "Lake Area".

Southwest Louisiana (SWLA) is a five-parish area intersecting the Acadiana and Central Louisiana regions in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is composed of the following parishes (counties): Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis. As of 2020, the combined population of the five parish area was 313,951.

Southwest Louisiana has one metropolitan area: Lake Charles. The southwestern portion of Louisiana is also geographically and culturally attached to Southeast Texas.

The Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan statistical area is a three-county region in Southeast Texas. The metropolitan area shares borders with the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area to the west and the Lake Charles metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Louisiana to the east. The area is also known as the Golden Triangle. The "golden" refers to the wealth that came from the Spindletop oil strike near Beaumont in 1901, and "triangle" refers to the area between the cities of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange.

According to the 2000 census, it had a population of 385,090 (though the 2010 census placed the population at 388,745). Newton County was added to the metropolitan area in the February, 2013 delineation (OMB Bulletin 13–01); the addition of which increased the 2010 population by 14,445. At the 2020 census, the metropolitan area's population increased to 397,565, becoming the 139th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S.

Calcasieu Parish (/ˈkælkəˌʃuː/; French: Paroisse de Calcasieu) is a parish located on the southwestern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 216,785. The parish seat and largest city is Lake Charles.

Calcasieu Parish is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area; it is also located near the Beaumont–Port Arthur (Texas), Lafayette, and Alexandria metropolitan areas.

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 km) 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.