Provided is a thin-film magnetic head having a heating element in which excessive increase in temperature is suppressed corresponding to smaller area of the shield layers of the MR effect element. The thin-film magnetic head comprises: an electromagnetic coil element; an MR effect element having two shield layers sandwiching an MR effect multilayer; and a heating element having a heating layer provided at least between the electromagnetic coil element and the MR effect element, and further in the head, at least a portion of a run-off portion of the heating layer running off the shield layer closer to the heating layer than the other shield layer has a resistance per unit length smaller than a resistance per unit length of the other portions than the portion running off the shield layer.