A magnetic recording medium of the present invention comprises:a substrate;a nickel oxide underlayer formed on said substrate; anda cobalt-containing maghemite thin film formed on said nickel oxide underlayer, having either a spacing of a (311) plane of not more than 2.510 .ANG., a spacing of a (222) plane of not more than 2.415 .ANG. or a spacing of a (220) plane of not more than 2.950 .ANG., and having the ratio of either of X-ray diffraction spectrum peak intensities of the (311), (222) or (220) planes of said cobalt-containing maghemite thin film to an X-ray diffraction spectrum peak intensity of the (400) plane of more than 0.5:1.Such a magnetic recording medium has a higher coercive force, a higher saturation magnetization, less amount of noise generated, a large output in a high recording frequency region and less distortion of a reproduced waveform, and is suitable for use in current magnetic recording systems in which a ring-type magnetic write head is used.