Due to their high strength and low weight, laminated composite plates and beams are increasingly used in aerospace, automobile and other engineering constructions. Creating more efficient and more accurate analysis methods for composite structures has become an important target for many researchers. Today the finite element method is considered as the most powerful and versatile method of structural analysis. But for structures with regular geometry and simple boundary conditions, the finite element analysis is time consuming and costly. This is especially true for eigenvalue problems in vibration and stability analysis. In order to overcome this difficulty, the finite strip method has been developed. Besides reducing computational efforts, this method has the versatility of the finite element method. In the present study, a finite strip method for the local buckling analysis of moderately thick composite laminated plates is developed according to higher-order shear deformation theory. This theory accounts for the parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the thickness of the plate and for zero transverse shear stresses on the plate surfaces. It also eliminates the need for shear correction factors in calculating the transverse shear stiffness. This method uses basic function series in the longitudinal direction and a polynomial in the other direction of finite strip to express variations of displacements. Effects of loading, different longitudinal boundary conditions, thickness, number of layers, lamination scheme or stacking sequence, … are investigated. Keywords: local buckling, laminated composite plates, higher-order shear deformation theory, finite strip method.