Abstract: The elastic buckling analysis of steel shear walls stiffened by vertical tubes under non-uniform compression is carried out using FEM, and the curves relating compressive buckling stresses to the rigidities of stiffeners are obtained, from which the threshold rigidities of the stiffener are obtained, which are the demarcation of global buckling and local panel buckling of the stiffened shear wall. The results reveal that the threshold rigidity increases with the number of the stiffeners and decreases with the ratio of flexural to torsional rigidities of the stiffeners, the panel width-to-height ratio and the non-uniform stress distribution factor. Approximate formulas are proposed to calculate the threshold rigidities of the stiffeners, which are reasonably conservative.