A magnetic recording medium which comprises a plastic base film and a magnetic layer formed on one side of the base film and composed of ferromagnetic alloy powder dispersed in a resin binder, characterized in that said ferromagnetic alloy powder has a surface area of at least 48 m.sup.2 /g as measured by BDT method, said magnetic layer has a coercive force of at least 1,000 Oe and a surface roughness of at most 0.08 .mu.m, and a thermoset backing layer having a surface roughness of from 0.05 to 0.6 .mu.m is formed on the other side of the base film, the backing layer being made of a thermosetting resin composition comprising a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate-vinyl alcohol copolymer, a polyurethane resin and a polyisocyanate.