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This paper presents quasi-static tests of six large-scale steel tube-reinforced concrete (ST-RC) composite column specimens under high axial force ratio. The effects of the number of loading cycles and the volumetric transverse reinforcement ratio on cumulative damage performance of the ST-RC columns were investigated. The test results indicate that the number of loading cycles has minimal effect on the strength capacity of the specimens. The number of loading cycles has limited effect on the deformation capacity for the specimens of which the transverse reinforcement is designed based on the volume of all stirrup-confined concrete, while it obviously affects the deformation capacity for the counterpart specimens of which the transverse reinforcement is designed based only on the volume of the stirrup-confined concrete of RC encasement. When the lateral loading reverses ten cycles at each displacement level, the former specimen shows obviously larger deformation and cumulative energy dissipation capacities than the latter. The ultimate displacement and failure displacement of the former are 25% and 41% larger than those of the latter, and the total cumulative energy dissipated by the former is 2.8 times that of the latter. Allowing for the effect of cumulative damage of structures subjected to ground motions, the recommendation is made that the transverse reinforcement for the ST-RC columns should be designed based on the volume of all stirrup-confined concrete for ensuring adequate deformation capacity of the columns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]