In this paper, we have systematically formulated the equations concerned to the in-plane and out-of-plane motions and deformations of a thick circular beam by using the kinetic and strain energies in order to analyse natural frequencies of a thick ring. The effects of variation of radius of curvature across the cross-section and also the effects of bending shear, extension and twist are considered. The equations of motion for natural vibration analysis of a ring are obtained utilizing the cyclic symmetry of vibration modes of the ring. The frequencies calculated using thick ring model and thin ring model are compared and discussed with the ones obtained from finite element analysis using the method of cyclic symmetry with 20-node hexahedral solid elements for rings with the different ratio of radial thickness to mean radius.