A magnetic recording medium having a nonmagnetic substrate, a first magnetic layer which is formed on a surface of the substrate, has an axis of easy magnetization slanting from a normal line of a layer plane, contains cobalt and oxygen in an amount of not more than 40 atomic % and has a thickness of not larger than 0.15 .mu.m, and a second magnetic layer which is formed on a surface of the first magnetic layer, contains cobalt, has an axis of easy magnetization slanting from a normal line of a layer plane, contains oxygen in an amount of not larger than 37 atomic % and from 61 % to 99 % of the oxygen concentration in the first layer, and has a thickness of not larger than 0.15 .mu.m, which medium has a large S/N ratio.