A light emitting device capable of readily produce a pseudo-continuous spectrum covering a wide wavelength regions at low costs, and of totally solving various problems which have resided in the conventional light sources, and a lighting apparatus using this device is provided. The light emitting device 10 is configured so that an active layer in a double hetero light emitting layer portion composed of compound semiconductors comprises a plurality of emission unit layers differing from each other in band gap energy, and so as to emit a simulatively synthesized light having a pseudo-continuous spectrum ensuring an emission intensity of 5% or more of a peak intensity over a wavelength region of 50 nm or more.