A nitride semiconductor light emitting device includes a worked substrate including grooves and lands formed on a main surface of a nitride semiconductor substrate, a nitride semiconductor underlayer covering the grooves and the lands of the worked substrate and a nitride semiconductor multilayer emission structure including an emission layer including a quantum well layer or both a quantum well layer and a barrier layer in contact with the quantum well layer between an n-type layer and a p-type layer over the nitride semiconductor underlayer, while the width of the grooves is within the range of 11 to 30 &mgr;m and the width of the lands is within the range of 1 to 20 &mgr;m.