In this paper, the eccentricity of the progressive crushing of circular tubes subjected to an axial compression is studied using the finite element method (FEM). The eccentricity was found to depend on the thickness-to-radius ratio t/R 0 . Thus, the eccentricity for a thick tube is higher than that for a thin tube with the same radius. The reason why the eccentricity is a function of t/R 0 and it is always greater than 0.5 is due to the different stress-strain relationships in the inner and outer folds generated in crushing. Based on this, an approximation equation is proposed to evaluate change of the eccentricity with the tube thickness. Furthermore, the validity of this equation was verified by the results of axial crushing test.