A nonclassical¯rst-order shear deformation shell model is developed to analyze the axial buckling and dynamic stability of microshells made of functionally graded materials (FGMs). For this purpose, the modi¯ed couple stress elasticity theory is implemented into the¯rst-order shear deformation shell theory. Unlike the classical shell theory, the newly developed shell model contains an internal material length scale parameter to capture e±ciently the size e®ect. By using the Hamilton's principle, the higher-order governing equations and boundary conditions are derived. Afterward, the Navier solution is utilized to predict the critical axial buckling loads of simply-supported functionally graded (FG) microshells. Moreover, the governing equations are written in the form of Mathieu-Hill equations and then Bolotin's method is employed to determine the instability regions. A parametric study is conducted to investigate the in°uences of static load factor, axial wave number, dimensionless length scale parameter, material property gradient index, length-to-radius and length-to-thickness aspect ratios on the axial buckling and dynamic stability responses of FGM microshells. It is revealed that size e®ect plays an important role in the value of critical axial buckling load and instability region of FGM microshells especially corresponding to those with lower aspect ratios.