A punch rivet for joining two workpieces, has a head and a shank. The shank is a hollow shank with a shank internal diameter (D3), a shank external diameter (D1) and a shank end face. On the shank end face is a ring cutting edge with the diameter (D4) that is smaller than the shank external diameter (D1) but greater than the shank internal diameter (D3). The ring cutting edge is radially spaced both from the shank external diameter (D1) and from the shank internal diameter (D3) by at least 20% of the radial shank wall thickness (M5). And the ratio D3/D1 of shank internal diameter D3 to shank external diameter D1 is smaller than 0.6.