Highly rated hamlet

This Dallas neighbor earns new bragging rights as 5th best city to live in U.S.

The Plano Balloon Festival is one of the hottest events of the year in DFW.

Photo by Silvana Baumann

Plano is on a hot streak. It can add yet another accolade to its resume. The city ranks fifth on Niche.com’s 2020 list of the best cities to live in the U.S.

Factors that Niche.com uses to judge the livability of a city include cost of living, quality of schools, home values, crime rates, employment rates, diversity, and health and fitness. Niche.com is a review website that crunches data about communities, schools, and employers.

"Living in Plano offers residents a dense suburban feel and most residents own their homes," the report says. "In Plano there are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. Many families and young professionals live in Plano and residents tend to have moderate political views. The public schools in Plano are highly rated."

IN all 228 U.S. cities were ranked. Plano also was got No. 4 in "best cities to buy a house in America" and No. 8 in "best cities to raise a family."

Plano regularly receives accolades like this one. For instance, Plano ranks first on WalletHub’s 2020 list of the best places in the U.S. for summer staycations. Also this year, Plano appears at No. 2 on WalletHub’s list of the happiest places in the country.

Livability.com echoes Niche's assessment, saying Plano, home to roughly 290,000 residents, “boasts great neighborhoods, strong education, iconic and authentic Texas cuisine, affordable living, and plenty of entertaining things to do.”

Not too far behind Plano is Richardson, which ranks as the 12th best city to live.

"Living in Richardson offers residents an urban suburban mix feel and most residents own their homes," Niche.com says. "In Richardson there are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, and parks.

Among Texas cities, only the Houston suburb of The Woodlands beats Plano, coming in at No. 2.

Arlington, Virginia, tops this year’s Niche.com rankings of the best cities to live in. Other Texas cities in the top 25 are Round Rock (No. 22) and Austin (No. 23).

Aside from being No. 2 overall, The Woodlands ranks as the second best city to raise a family, the third best city to buy a house, and the seventh best city for public schools. Nearly 120,000 people live in The Woodlands.

“The Woodlands is a great place to live. It offers [a] good cost of living and quality of life. Great food and events. Beautiful trees everywhere and lot of green space to spend time outdoors,” a Niche.com reviewer writes.

Round Rock, the Austin metro area’s No. 1 city on the Niche.com list, is no stranger to rankings like this one, either. Last year, Money magazine named Round Rock the second best place to live in America. In lauding Round Rock, Money cited the suburb’s stellar schools, robust economy, and array of spare-time activities.

Here, in list form, are the Texas cities that made Niche.com’s top 100 list of the best cities to live in America:

The Woodlands, No. 2
Plano, No. 5
Richardson, No. 12
Round Rock, No. 22
Austin, No. 23
College Station, No. 26
Irving, No. 40
Denton, No. 53
Lubbock, No. 58
Houston, No. 66
Arlington, No. 77
Dallas, No. 79
San Antonio, No. 85

lists rankings

Daring to care

Kindhearted Plano ranks among the 10 most caring cities in America

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Plano is one of the happiest and most caring places to be.

Plano has some of the kindest, most generous residents in the country. So says a new report that ranks the Dallas suburb the No. 10 most caring city in the United States.

The personal finance website WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. cities across 38 metrics across three key dimensions for its study, "Most Caring Cities in America (2025)". They include caring for the local community, caring for the vulnerable, and caring in the workforce.

The north Dallas suburb made a big leap over its 2023 ranking as the No. 17 most caring American city.

Out of the three main categories, Plano performed the best for its "caring for the community" rank (No. 8), which was determined based on the city's crime rates, the civic engagement of its residents, the share of a household's income donated to charity, and more.

Plano also cares for its community in other ways, whether it's through maintaining its long-held family-friendly reputation or by maintaining a pristine park system. All of these reasons contribute to why so many people are choosing to live in the second-happiest city in the nation.

Plano also ranked fairly well in the overall "caring for the vulnerable" category (No. 12), which covers child and adult poverty rates, adoption rates, availability of paid family leave, the number of rehab centers per capita, pet shelters and rescue services, and the "disability-friendliness" of employers.

Plano still has plenty of work to do when it comes to caring for its workforce, however, as the city ranked No. 71 out of all 100 U.S. cities. This metric focused on the number of first responders, healthcare professionals, teachers, and counselors per capita.

WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says there are many factors that make cities like Plano a true "caring" and supportive place for its residents.

"The most caring cities donate a lot of money to charity and have high volunteer rates, but being a caring city overall requires much more than just giving time or money," Lupo said. "In addition, the top cities have low crime rates, environmentally-friendly residents and low rates of poverty and homelessness."

But small steps are important, too. Community care is as simple as helping an elderly neighbor unload groceries from their car, keeping a vigilant eye out for porch pirates or suspicious activity, and spending quality time with loved ones.

Plano was once again the highest ranked Texas city in WalletHub's list. Other North Texas cities that earned spots in the report include Irving (No. 36), Garland (No. 39), Fort Worth (No. 54), Arlington (No. 58), and Dallas (No. 77).

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin ranked No. 45, while San Antonio (No. 89) and Houston (No. 91) barely skirted onto the list.

The top 10 most caring U.S. cities, according to WalletHub, are:

No. 1 – Virginia Beach, Virginia
No. 2 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 3 – Boston, Massachusetts
No. 4 – Gilbert, Arizona
No. 5 – Chesapeake, Virginia
No. 6 – Fremont, California
No. 7 – San Diego, California
No. 8 – Madison, Wisconsin
No. 9 – Colorado Springs, Colorado
No. 10 – Plano, Texas

wallethub plano community care top 10 cities plano