A method for driving a plasma display panel is provided in which wasteful power consumption is reduced and light emission efficiency is improved when the number of cells to be lighted is relatively small. The method includes classifying a display ratio into plural group ranges, selecting a suitable display pulse waveform for each group range, detecting the display ratio of an object to be displayed in a real display, and plural types of display pulses having different waveforms are used differently in accordance with the result of the detection. The display ratio means a ratio of the number of cells to be lighted to the number of cells of the screen.