In this work, the buckling behavior of the cross-ply laminated non-homogeneous orthotropic truncated conical shells in the large deformation under the uniform axial load is studied. Firstly, the basic relations of the cross-ply laminated non-homogeneous orthotropic truncated conical shells are derived using the large deformation theory. Then modified Donnell type non-linear stability and compatibility equations are obtained and solved. A computer program called Maple 14 has been used in the numerical solution. Finally, the influences of the degree of non-homogeneity, the number and ordering of layers and the variations of the conical shell characteristics on the non-linear axial buckling load are investigated. The comparison with available results is satisfactorily good. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.