【Objective】The overall elastic buckling performance of corroded cold-formed thin-walled steel columns was investigated in this paper. 【Method】The finite element eigenvalue buckling analysis method was used to study the effects of corrosion location, corrosion area length and width on the elastic overall buckling of cold-formed thin-walled steel columns. The calculation method for the elastic overall buckling stress of corroded cold-formed thin-walled steel columns was proposed, and the theoretical calculation results were compared with the finite element eigenvalue buckling analysis values. 【Result】The results show that as the degree of corrosion increased, the elastic bending buckling stress and the elastic bending torsional buckling stress gradually decreased. The effect of web corrosion on elastic bending buckling stress was greater than that of flange corrosion, while the effect of web corrosion and flange corrosion on elastic bending torsional buckling stress was similar. The elastic bending buckling stress gradually decreased with the increase of the corrosion area length, and the rate of decrease showed a decreasing trend. However, the elastic bending torsional buckling stress approximately linearly decreased with the increase of the corrosion area length. With the increase of the corrosion area width, the elastic bending torsional buckling stress decreased faster than the elastic bending buckling stress. The theoretical calculation values were in good agreement with the finite element simulation results. 【Conclusion】The calculation method proposed in this paper can be used to calculate the elastic overall buckling stress of corroded cold-formed thin-walled steel columns.