In this paper, the free vibration and buckling of laminated homogeneous and non-homogeneous orthotropic truncated conical shells under lateral and hydrostatic pressures are Studied. At first, the basic relations, the modified Donnell type dynamic stability and compatibility equations have been obtained for laminated orthotropic truncated conical shells, the Young's moduli and density of which vary piecewise continuously in the thickness direction. Applying superposition and Galerkin methods to the foregoing equations, the buckling pressures and dimensionless frequency parameter of laminated homogeneous and non-homogeneous orthotropic conical shells are obtained. The appropriate formulas for single-layer and laminated cylindrical shells made of homogeneous and non-homogeneous, orthotropic and isotropic materials are found as a special case. Finally, the effects of the number and ordering of layers, the variations of conical shell characteristics, together and separately variations of the Young's moduli and densities of the materials of layers on the critical lateral and hydrostatic pressures, and frequency parameter are found for different mode numbers. The results are compared with other works. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.