A perpendicular magnetic recording medium is provided that achieves excellent magnetic performance by suppressing spike noises due to a soft magnetic backing layer, as well as good productivity. The perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprises at least a soft magnetic backing layer, an antiferromagnetic layer, an nonmagnetic underlayer, and a magnetic
recording layer sequentially laminated on a nonmagnetic substrate, wherein the magnetic
recording layer has a granular structure, the nonmagnetic underlayer is composed of
ruthenium or a
ruthenium alloy having an hcp structure having a thickness of at least 5 nm, the antiferromagnetic layer is composed of an
alloy having an fcc structure and containing at least
manganese, and the antiferromagnetic layer is laminated directly on the soft magnetic backing layer. Preferably, the antiferromagnetic layer is composed of an IrMn
alloy, and the soft magnetic backing layer has an fcc structure and contains at least
nickel and iron. Advantageously, the soft magnetic backing layer consists of two or more directly laminated soft magnetic
layers, and a distance between a top surface of the soft magnetic backing layer and a bottom surface of the magnetic
recording layer is at most 25 nm.