An organic EL device includes: a reflective electrode; a transparent electrode opposite the reflective electrode; an organic layer including a light-emitting layer between the reflective electrode and transparent electrode; and a low refractive index layer between the reflective electrode and light-emitting layer. The low refractive index layer has a function of transporting/injecting electrons/holes, and has a lower refractive index than the light-emitting layer. Distance between the surface of the reflective electrode and a central light-emitting position of the light-emitting layer is 300 nm or less. Furthermore, Δn×d/λ≦−0.009 and Δn×d/λ≦−0.02 are satisfied when the reflective electrode comprises Al and Ag, respectively, where: λ denotes the central light-emitting wavelength of light generated in the light-emitting layer; Δn denotes the refractive index difference between the low refractive index layer and the light-emitting layer, with the refractive index of the light-emitting layer as reference; and d denotes the thickness of the low refractive index layer.