A perpendicular magnetic recording medium exhibits reduced noise and improved performance in such measures as SN ratio, and can realize high magnetic recording densities. In the perpendicular magnetic recording medium, at least a first nonmagnetic intermediate layer, second nonmagnetic intermediate layer, and magnetic recording layer are stacked in order on a nonmagnetic substrate. The first nonmagnetic intermediate layer is formed from a CoCrRuW alloy, and the second nonmagnetic intermediate layer is formed from an Ru-base alloy.