Disclosed is a PDP and a manufacturing method therefor having improved display performance even if the PDP is of a fine-cell structure. A protective layer of the PDP is composed of an MgO film layer and an MgO particle layer that is made of MgO particles. The MgO particles are formed by burning an MgO precursor and satisfy that a/b≧1, where a denotes a spectrum integral value in a wavelength region of a CL spectrum from 200 nm to 300 nm, exclusive of 300 nm, and b denotes a spectrum integral value in a wavelength region of the CL spectrum from 300 nm to 550 nm, exclusive of 550 nm. With provision of the MgO particle layer, the discharge characteristics of the protective layer improve (shorter discharge delay and less temperature dependence of the discharge delay). Consequently, the PDP is ensured to exhibit excellent display performance.