An organic electroluminescent display (OELD) device includes: first and second substrates facing each other; a plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines and a plurality of power lines on the first substrate, the gate and data lines crossing each other to define a plurality of pixel regions; a switching element and a driving element connected to each other in each pixel region; a first electrode connected to the driving element; an organic luminescent layer on the first electrode, the organic luminescent layer including a buffer layer as an uppermost layer; and a second electrode of a transparent conductive material on the organic luminescent layer.