A positive resist composition includes a base material component (A) which exhibits increased alkali solubility under an action of an acid, and an acid generator component (B) which generates an acid upon exposure, wherein the base material component (A) contains a compound (A1) in which phenolic hydroxyl groups in a polyhydric phenol compound (a) containing two or more phenolic hydroxyl groups and having a molecular weight of 300 to 2,500 are protected with acid dissociable, dissolution inhibiting groups, and the compound (A1) exhibits a standard deviation (sn) of the number of protective groups per molecule of less than 1, or exhibits a standard deviation (sp) of a protection ratio (mol %) per molecule of less than 16.7.