McKinney is a city in and the county seat of Collin County, Texas, United States,[5] and the second in population to Plano. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city’s 2010 population was 131,117 making it the nineteenth most populous city in the state of Texas.[6] It is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, and is located about 31 mi (50 km) north of Dallas.

The Census Bureau listed McKinney as the nation’s fastest growing city from 2000 to 2003 and again in 2006, among cities with more than 50,000 people. In 2007 it was ranked second-fastest growing among cities with more than 100,000 people and in 2008 as third-fastest.[7] The most recent population estimate, as of January 1, 2014, is 149,082.[2]

On March 24, 1849, William Davis, who owned 3,000 acres (12 km2) where McKinney now stands, donated 120 acres (0.49 km2) for the townsite. Ten years later McKinney incorporated, and in 1913 the town adopted the commission form of government.

For the first 125 years of its history, McKinney served as the principal commercial center for the county. The county seat provided farmers with flour, corn, and cotton mills, cotton gins, a cotton compress and cottonseed oil mill, as well as banks, churches, schools, newspapers, and, from the 1880s, an opera house. Businesses also came to include a textile mill, an ice company, a large dairy, and a garment-manufacturing company. The population grew from 35 in 1848 to 4,714 in 1912. By 1953 McKinney had a population of more than 10,000 and 355 businesses. The town continued to serve as an agribusiness center for the county until the late 1960s.

By 1970, McKinney was surpassed in size by Plano. McKinney experienced moderate population growth, from 15,193 in the 1970 census, to 21,283 in the 1990 census. By the mid-1980s the town had become a commuter center for residents who worked in Plano and Dallas. In 1985 it had a population of just over 16,000 and supported 254 businesses. Since then, McKinney’s rate of increase has been much more dramatic. In the 2000 census, McKinney had grown to 54,369 with 2,005 businesses, and in the Census Bureau’s 2006 estimate, the population was 107,530. In 2009, McKinney celebrated its sesquicentennial. The current estimated population for McKinney (January 2014) is 149,082.[2]

Both the city and the county were named for Collin McKinney, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and a congressman for the Red River district of the Republic of Texas. He was the author of a bill establishing counties in the northern part of the state.[8]