The manufacturing process of cold-formed steel sections induces the co-existent residual stresses and strain hardening of the material, and subsequently affects their structural behaviour and strength. This paper presents the results of research which forms a part of a larger study on residual stresses in cold-formed stainless steel Circular Hollow Sections (CHS) and their effect on the structural behaviour. The manufacturing process of cold-formed CHS consists of the following three distinct stages: (1) the longitudinal coiling and uncoiling of the steel sheet, (2) the transverse bending of the uncoiled sheet into a circular cross-sectional shape, and (3) welding at the edges of the formed circular shape. This paper is concerned with deformationally-induced residual stresses in roll-formed stainless steel CHS, that arise from the cold-bending operations of the manufacturing process before the longitudinal welding is applied. In this paper, an analytical model is presented for these residual stresses, in which each stage of the cold-bending operations is modelled as an inelastic plane strain pure bending problem and the stainless steel sheet is assumed to obey Hill's anisotropic yield criterion with isotropic hardening to account for the effects of material anisotropy and nonlinear stress-strain behaviour. To quantify the strain hardening induced by cold work, the prediction of equivalent plastic strains is also addressed in this model. The accuracy of the model is demonstrated by comparing its predictions with those from a finite element simulation. A parametric study has also been carried out to investigate the effects of forming parameters and mechanical properties on these residual stresses. © 2010 The University of Hong Kong.