A perpendicular magnetic recording medium having a good thermal stability and a high recording density is provided. The perpendicular magnetic recording medium includes at least a first and a second perpendicular magnetic recording layer and a substrate supporting the first and the second perpendicular magnetic recording layers. The first and the second perpendicular magnetic recording layers have different physical/magnetic properties and are formed of materials that compensate the different physical/magnetic properties. The first and the second perpendicular magnetic recording layers are selected from a layer for improving perpendicular magnetic anisotropic energy (Ku), a layer for reducing the size of crystal grains, a layer for reducing the size of magnetic domains, a layer for increasing an SNR, a layer for improving signal output, a layer for reducing noise, a layer for improving the uniformity of crystal grain sizes, and a layer for improving the uniformity of magnetic domain sizes.