A nitride semiconductor laser element enhanced in transverse-mode stability and service life characteristics at a high output so as to be available as a light source for reading from and writing to a large-capacity medium, the element comprising an active layer, a p-side clad layer and a p-side contact layer, all laminated in that order, wherein a stripe-like waveguide area is formed by etching from the p-side contact layer side, which area has a width of 1 to 3 νm and a depth extending from below a position where the film thickness of the p-side clad layer is 0.1 νm to above a luminous layer. Specially, a nitride semiconductor laser element improved in an aspect ratio in a far-field pattern, wherein a p-side optical guide layer has a stripe-like projection, a p-type nitride semiconductor layer overlies the projection, and the p-side optical guide layer's projection has a film thickness of up to 1 νm, the p-side optical guide layer being characterized by being larger in film thickness than an n-side optical guide layer.