An image recognition apparatus includes a processor including a plurality of arithmetic units; and a memory storing a plurality of data elements, each corresponding to one of candidate regions detected in an image and indicating a location and an evaluation value of the corresponding candidate region. The processor sorts the data elements by calculating in parallel, in reference to evaluation values, indexes each indicating a position of a corresponding one of the data elements in a sorted ordering and transferring in parallel, after the calculation of the indexes, the data elements based on the indexes. The processor selects part of the candidate regions based on the sorted ordering of the data elements.