[7] Several Native Americans have passed through what is now Plano, including the Comanche, Caddo, and Wichita.

[9] In 1872, the completion of the Houston and Central Texas Railway helped Plano grow, and it was incorporated in 1873.

[2] By 1970, Plano began to feel some of the boom its neighbors had experienced after World War II.

A series of public works projects and a change in taxes that removed the farming community from the town helped increase the population.

[2] Sewers, schools, and street development kept pace with this massive increase, largely because of Plano's flat topography, grid layout, and planning initiatives.

During the 1980s, many large corporations, including J. C. Penney and Frito-Lay, moved their headquarters to Plano, spurring further growth.

Plano is surrounded by other municipalities and so cannot expand in area, and there is little undeveloped land within the city limits.

The development is expected to feature apartments, medical facilities, restaurants, a Race Trac gas station, and a hotel.

On June 15, 2015, after five years of disuse, a 178-foot water tower built in 1985 was demolished to make room for Legacy West.

By 2020, the racial makeup was 46.3% non-Hispanic white, 8.77% Black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 24.08% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.47% some other race, 4.0% multiracial, and 16.04% Hispanic or Latino of any race,[20] reflecting nationwide trends of greater diversification.

In 2007, Plano had the United States' highest median income among cities with a population exceeding 250,000, at $84,492.

[27] Along with Houston and Sugar Land, Plano has one of Texas's major concentrations of Chinese Americans.

Legacy Drive in ZIP Code 75024, between Preston Road and Dallas North Tollway, has many corporate campuses.

[41] In 2015, Liberty Mutual announced its plans to build a new corporate campus just a few blocks east of Toyota's, bringing an estimated 5,000 jobs to the community.

[42] In January 2016, JP Morgan Chase and mortgage giant Fannie Mae announced they would move their regional operations to Plano, bringing a combined 7,000 new jobs to the community.

[45] Although Plano is named for the flat plains of the area, large trees abound in the city's many parks.

[46] One such tree, estimated to be over 200 years old, is in Bob Woodruff Park, near Rowlett Creek on the city's east side.

Go Ape, a family-friendly place with outdoor activities like ziplining and Tarzan swings, is at Oak Point Park and Preserve.

[49] The Plano Balloon Festival, which happens every September, also takes place at Oak Point Park and Preserve.

The City of Plano also owns and operates four performing arts venues and a conference center under the auspices of the Parks and Recreation Department: the Courtyard Theater, the Cox Playhouse, McCall Plaza, The Nature & Retreat Center and the Red Tail Pavilion.

[62] On December 8, 2014, the city council passed an amendment to its civil rights act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected.

[63][64] The ordinance drew the ire of conservative groups such as the Liberty Institute, which argued that it infringed on business owners' religious rights.

[67] Plano is a voluntary member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments association, the purpose of which is to coordinate individual and collective local governments and facilitate regional solutions, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and enable joint decisions.

[68] Dallas's wealthy northern suburbs were solidly Republican, and in 2005, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research ranked Plano, the largest of them, the United States' fifth-most conservative city.

[69] It has recently become more competitive in national elections as its population has diversified, shifting toward the Democratic Party since 2016, when Donald Trump won the city by a narrow margin.

Plano is split between Texas's 3rd, 4th, 26th, and 32nd congressional districts, represented by Republicans Keith Self, Pat Fallon, and Brandon Gill, and Democrat Julie Johnson respectively.

Plano is represented in the United States Senate by Republicans Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

[77] In 2012, Plano Independent School District announced that 128 seniors were selected as National Merit Semifinalists.

[83] DBU North, a satellite campus of Dallas Baptist University, is in west Plano, and offers undergraduate and graduate courses and houses the admissions and academic counseling offices.

During its early membership in DART, Plano was lightly served by bus lines, but in 2002, the Red Line of the DART light rail project opened stations in Downtown Plano and at Parker Road, which provide access to commuters traveling to work elsewhere in the Dallas area.