Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A city of 293,028, settled in 1852.
Plano is a city of 293,028, and it grades B+ overall, 91st among Texas's 640 graded towns. Residents are healthier than 91% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates and the median household earns $112K. The trade-off: the typical home is worth about $498K, 5.5 years of the Dallas metro’s $90K median household income. 61% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more in Plano, above both the Texas town median (23%) and the median of U.S. towns (29%). On walkability, just 40 of Texas’ 999 towns do better. Plano is home to The Chicago School at Dallas.
Where Plano beats most towns.
Where Plano’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Texas), ordered by how far Plano is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 155 in 1870, 285,494 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1891 and 3 maps from 1929 on.
3 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Plano. Close and well known come first.
Big draw29 mi Stadium & arenaAT&T Stadium
Big draw19 mi Stadium & arenaCotton Bowl
Big draw17 mi Stadium & arenaTexas Stadium
Big draw29 mi Stadium & arenaGlobe Life Field
9 mi Stadium & arenaToyota Stadium
11 mi Theme parkUniversal Kids ResortAT&T Stadium: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cotton Bowl: Robbiewest88, Public domain · Texas Stadium: Allspamme, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Globe Life Field: Drone To Fly, CC BY 3.0 · Toyota Stadium: Flavius Constantine, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Universal Kids Resort: CANthony0125, CC0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Plano, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Plano.
Plano draws workers from Dallas and beyond, has hotter summers than nearly all U.S. towns and has less no health insurance than most of Texas.
The typical value, about $498K, is 9% below its May 2024 peak. The median property tax bill is $6,700, against $4,232 across Texas, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The median rent in Plano is $1,841 a month. The typical Plano home is worth about $498,000, down 3.3% in a year, 68% above the Texas typical home. 57% of households own their home in Plano.
| Plano | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,841 a month | $1,206 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 57% | 69% | 73% |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 44% | 51% | 48% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Its public schools are run by Plano ISD. Three of its 111 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renner MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,137 | A− |
| Plano East Sr. H SLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 3,033 | A+ |
| Fowler MiddleTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 967 | A+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
49 miles of trail in 68 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, 830 acres with 6.9 miles of trail. Plano’s trail density is 0.7 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve | 6.9 mi | 830 |
| 2. Arbor Hills Nature Preserve | 6.6 mi | 208 |
| 3. Bob Woodruff Park (North) | 3.1 mi | 218 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
254,390 jobs are based in Plano, 1.8 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. Jobs based here grew from 170,461 in 2013 to 254,390.
About one in 4 of Plano’s working residents works in town. 28% of Plano workers work from home. Jobs based in Plano grew to 254,390 in 2023, 83,929 more than in 2013.
| Plano | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 28% | 9.6% | 11% |
| Median household income | $112,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 6.8% | 12% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Its widest gap with Texas is no health insurance: 10.3% of those 18–64 have no health insurance, against 19.1% statewide.
Plano beats the Texas average on 19 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Plano | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 15% | 14% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 18% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 8.8% | 14% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 24% | 19% |
| What stands out | Plano | TX |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 10.3% | 19.1% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11% | 19.3% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 6.8% | 6.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
July afternoons average 94.5°, hotter than in 95% of U.S. towns; January nights average 35.4°.
Plano has mild winters and hot summers. About 3 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Plano | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 95°F | 95°F | 85°F |
| January low | 35°F | 37°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 59% of U.S. communities. Since 1979, 71 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Plano.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Reported crimes fell from 5,311 to 3,936 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
15 within 15 miles of the center of Plano
About 6 of every 100 Plano residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Texas.
10.3% of the town is conserved land, across 68 parks and preserves.
33 notable people were born in Plano.
City in Texas, United States
Plano ( PLAY-noh; Spanish for 'flat surface') is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, where it is the largest city in Collin County. A small portion of Plano is located in Denton County. Plano is one of the principal suburbs of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. With a population of 285,494 at the 2020 census, it is the ninth most-populous city in Texas, and, respectively, the 74th most populous city in the United States. Plano serves as an important hub of the economy of Dallas. It is home to the headquarters of Frito-Lay, JCPenney, Pizza Hut, and Toyota Motor North America.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
9 towns share a border with Plano.
| Town | TX rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plano | #91 | B+ | D | B− | A− | A |
| Allen | #29 | A− | D− | B+ | A | A |
| Parker | #3 | A | C | A | A− | A |
| Richardson | #157 | B− | D | C+ | B+ | A |
| Carrollton | #110 | B | D | B− | B+ | A− |
| Hebron | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Frisco | #31 | A− | D− | B | A | A+ |
| The Colony | #139 | B | D | C+ | B+ | A |
Hebron isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Plano with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
By most measures, yes. Plano grades B+ overall, better than 67% of U.S. towns and #91 of 640 in Texas. It grades A for health, B− for safety and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.
33 notable people were born here, including Kevin McHale and Kellyn Acosta.
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