The axisymmetric buckling problems of homogeneous and laminated circular plates, on the basis of three-dimensional elasticity considerations for both prebuckling and perturbed analyses, are studied in this paper. Based on a recursive formulation, the present method always finds buckling loads as roots of a 2 x 2 eigendeterminant, regardless of the number of layers of the laminated plate being considered. Detailed numerical results dealing with axisymmetric buckling of plates made of either homogeneous or laminated material are presented and discussed. The buckling mode shapes for selected problems are also presented.