Nonlinear behavior of single-layer squarely-reticulated shallow spherical shells with geometrical imperfections subjected to a central concentrated (joint) load has been studied in this paper.Using the asymptotic iteration method,an analytical characteristic relationship between the non-dimensional load and central deflection is obtained.The resulting asymptotic solution can be used readily to perform the analysis of parameters and predict the buckling critical load.Meanwhile,numerical examples are presented and effects of imperfection factor and boundary conditions on buckling of the structures are discussed.Comparisons with data based on the finite element method show good exactness of the resulting solution.