A pneumatic tire (10), which has, in the surface of the tread (11), lug grooves (15) on one side extending from one axial edge towards the axial center of the tire in such a manner as to intersect with the circumferential direction of the tire and lug grooves (15) on the other side extending in a symmetrically opposite direction from the axial center towards the other axial edge of the tire, has at least one circumferential groove (12) extending circumferentially around the tire. Also, circumferential grooves (12, 13a, 13b) are so formed as to satisfy a relationship of “1≤(S/L)≤3” where L is the axial length of the central region, which is the region enclosed by two straight parallel lines each passing through the center between the contact width center (CL) and the contact edge with the shoulder regions being the regions axially outside of the parallel lines, and S is the total of the groove areas of the circumferential grooves (12, 13a, 13b) disposed in the central region. Therefore, the pneumatic tire (10) not only secures the steering stability performance on wet road surfaces, but also improves the steering stability and wear resistance performance on dry road surfaces.