The edge effects of self-equilibrated loads acting on the end of cross-ply laminated hollow cylinders are investigated by using three dimensional elasticity theory. The study assumes that the periodic displacement and stresses fields used decay away exponentially from the end load region. The use of a recursive and successive approximation method leads to an eigen-matrix whose eigenvalues represent the decay rates of the problem. The decay rates for either symmetric or antisymmetric cross-ply laminated cylinders are found and presented. The effects of material properties on decay rates are investigated for a typical eight-layered antisymmetric cross-ply laminated cylinder.