A magneto-optical recording medium includes a readout layer has in-plane magnetization at room temperature and in which a transition occurs from in-plane magnetization to perpendicular magnetization when temperature thereof is raised, and a recording layer for recording thereon information. The composition of the readout layer varies in a direction perpendicular to the surface thereof, and in the readout layer, the Co density on the light incident side is higher than the Co density on the interface between the readout layer and the recording layer. Therefore, the Curie temperature on the reproducing light incident side of the readout layer is high and the the polar Kerr rotation angle in reproducing increases, thereby achieving improvements in a reproducing signal quality. On the other hand, since the Curie temperature on the interface is low, the shift of the threshold temperature at which a transition occurs from in-plane to perpendicular by the magnetic interaction between the layers can be suppressed, thereby achieving a high quality reproducing signal without changing the laser power required for reproduction very much.