Early in the 18th century, the community was sitio of Paniqui, before and after Paniqui was also part of Bayambang, Pangasinan. The town's name is derived from a tree called kamiring which grew abundantly in the wilderness[1] and subsequently changed to Camiling. A crater in Mars was also named after the town as suggested by then U.N. President Carlos P. Romulo.
The community was originally a vast area of cogon growth interposed with thick forestalls areas stretching into the Zambales mountain ranges. A wide river cut through it. The early inhabitants of the place were the Aetas who make a living by fruit trees, hunting, and fishing. With the coming of the Pangasinenses and Ilocanos from the north, the Aetas who used to roam freely in the wilderness obliged themselves to move in to the interior. The new settlers first occupied the swampy land, now known as "Cacamilingan" on the opposite side of the river. With the passage of time, these settlers moved to the opposite shore in view of the fact that most often disastrous floods are visiting the present site. To this new location, the residents therein built a little church with the villagers taking Saint Michael as the Patron Saint.
As this settlement progressed, Camiling became a District Commission from 1834 to 1837. It was founded by Don Francisco Soriano, a barangay leader who became the town's first District Commissioner. In 1838, Camiling became an independent town, formally separated from the mother town of Paniqui and with Don Vicente Galsim, the first Governadorcillo. Thirty-eight others followed him. Don Buenaventura Torres, the last to serve under the Spanish regime and the first Presidente Municipal under the Revolutionary Government by Aguinaldo.
Today, Camiling spurred growth with banks and various infastructures like a water district and telecommunication companies and among other amenities found in a progressive medium-sized city. It is only in the 90's that the big banks discovered the large economy of Camiling. Because Ilocanos and Pangasinenses are kuripot and not showy, these bankers mistook this as an indication of the town's wealth and stayed away for a long time.
Camiling has been undergoing a boom for the past almost a decade and have seen a lot of infrastructure development. The backside to this is if the people of Camiling, specially those in the municipal government, fail to properly regulate this Camiling will experience soon the problems associated with urbanized zones. These include traffic congestion, criminality, air and water pollution and narrow streets.
Camiling was a first class municipality even way back during the 1970s but was reclassified when the Local Government Code went into effect in the early 1990s. It became again a first class municipality on November 20, 2001, by virtue of the latest income class classification initiated by the Department of Finance, the Local Government Unit of Camiling was reclassified from a second class municipality to a first class municipality having attained an annual income of 50,942,508.51 Pesos. With an aggregate area of 14,050 hectares (140.50 square kilometers) representing 4.6% of the province’s total land mass. From its establishment as an independent town in 1838 and through the evolutionary periods of its history because of Camiling’s rich cultural heritage. It was the most populous town in Tarlac when the province was created in the late 1800s. In the year 2008 Camiling's income is more than 72,463,893,00 pesos with growth of more than 22% for the past 7 years—Major Schools and Colleges—The municipality had one of the best College schools of the province called Tarlac College of Agriculture and an average College schools like Camiling College.it has also St. Paul College of Technology and USST .there were also big schools here like Camiling Catholic School, Camiling Secondary Institute, Asian Lexcon School.and some schools in its barangay. These Institution does not only show offs its standard to the 1st district of Tarlac but even outside the town. Majority says that Tarlac College of Agriculture is the best and highhest standard of all colleges in Tarlac next to Tarlac State University.Because it has many courses offered to professionals,vocationals and instructions for better learning.It has also Masteral Degree and Doctoral Degeee.Camiling is very lucky because this is the only college school in a municipality that offers bachelor,masteral and doctoral degree courses.they specialized agriculture and education