There is provided a magnetic recording medium including a surface having a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction. An arithmetic average roughness Ra, a ratio PSDMD,short/PSDTD,short, and a ratio PSDMD,long/PSDTD,long on the surface satisfy Ra≦3.0 nm, PSDMD,short/PSDTD,short≦0.65, and 1.3≦PSDMD,long/PSDTD,long≦2.3, in which PSDMD,short is an average value of PSD values in a range from 0.15 μm to 0.4 μm in the longitudinal direction of the surface, PSDTD,short is an average value of PSD values in a range from 0.15 μm to 0.4 μm in the lateral direction of the surface, PSDMD,long is an average value of PSD values in a range from 0.4 μm to 5.0 μm in the longitudinal direction of the surface, and PSDTD,long is an average value of PSD values in a range from 0.4 μm to 5.0 μm in the lateral direction of the surface.