The present invention is a method for manufacturing an epitaxial wafer by forming a single crystal silicon layer on a wafer containing a group IV element including silicon, the method including the steps of: removing a natural oxide film on a surface of the wafer containing the group IV element including silicon in an atmosphere containing hydrogen; forming an oxygen atomic layer by oxidizing the wafer after removing the natural oxide film; and forming a single crystal silicon by epitaxial growth on the surface of the wafer after forming the oxygen atomic layer, where a planar density of oxygen in the oxygen atomic layer is set to 4×10 14 atoms/cm 2 or less. This provides a method for manufacturing an epitaxial wafer having an epitaxial layer of good-quality single crystal silicon while also allowing the introduction of an oxygen atomic layer in an epitaxial layer stably and simply.