Carnforth is a market town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster in Lancashire, England, situated at the north-east end of Morecambe Bay. The parish of Carnforth had a population of 5,560 in the 2011 census, an increase from the 5,350 recorded in the 2001 census. The town is situated around 7 miles north of Lancaster, 17 miles south of Kendal, 40 miles east (bisected by Morecambe Bay) of Barrow-in-Furness and 28 miles north-west of Settle. The town is also close to the Cumbria/Lancashire border.

Carnforth grew in the 19th century through the presence of the railway and ironworks. Due to the closeness of the coast and the hills, Carnforth is a popular base for walkers and cyclists exploring the area. The River Keer, the West Coast Main Line (WCML), the A6 and the Lancaster Canal pass through the town. The M6 motorway passes just to the east, linked to Carnforth by the A6070 (formerly the A601(M)) which was originally part of the Lancaster bypass before the M6 was extended north.

The name Carnforth is thought to derive from its old function as a ford of the River Keer on which it is situated. Over time, the descriptive name Keer-ford may have morphed into the modern Carnforth. An alternative explanation is that the name derives from 'Chreneforde' and is Anglo-Saxon in origin, as cited in the Victoria County History of Lancashire. Another explanation is that it derives from the Old English cranford meaning 'crane ford'.

Much of the history of Carnforth revolves around the railway and ironworks. Vast deposits of limestone located locally made Carnforth an ideal place for an ironworks, as limestone is a key component of the smelting process. In 1846, the Carnforth Ironworks Company established a works near to the railway station. In the same year, a recession occurred in the Earl of Dudley ironworks in Worcestershire, which meant there was a surplus of workers. A number of workers moved to the ironworks and lived in the nearby company village of Dudley (now called Millhead). In 1864, the Carnforth Haematite Company took over the works and production was vastly increased due to iron ore that was brought in by rail from the Furness Peninsula. By 1872, steel production became the main focus for the works using the new Bessemer process; this process had failed by 1879.^{[citation needed]}

Iron production continued at the works until 1929, when it eventually closed down. The site was taken over by the War Department, as an ordnance depot and remained as such until the 1960s. From then to the present, the site is now an industrial estate housing several businesses.

In the 19th century, Carnforth grew from a small village into a railway town when it became the junction of three major railways. Carnforth Motive Power Depot was located to the west of the West Coast Main Line and, until mid-1968, was one of the last to retain an allocation of steam locomotives. The buildings are now occupied by West Coast Railways who still maintain and overhaul steam locos in their premises. The concrete locomotive coaling tower is a rare survivor.

With the closure of Carnforth MPD in 1968, the station's facilities were reduced. The main line platforms were closed in May 1970 and subsequently removed when the line was electrified two years later, although services still run on the Furness line and the Bentham Line.

From the 1920s to the 1980s, Morphy's Mill, in Oxford Street, was a major employer of women in Carnforth. Contrary to its name, it was not a mill but a factory making blouses and other garments.