A soft magnetic material, a dust core, a method for manufacturing the soft magnetic material, and a method for manufacturing the dust core that can improve DC bias characteristics are provided.A soft magnetic material includes a plurality of metal magnetic particles 10 whose coefficient of variation Cv (σ/μ), which is a ratio of a standard deviation (σ) of a particle size of the metal magnetic particles 10 to an average particle size (μ) thereof, is 0.40 or less and whose circularity Sf is 0.80 or more and 1 or less. The metal magnetic particles 10 preferably have an average particle size of 1 μm or more and 70 μm or less. The soft magnetic material preferably further includes an insulating coated film that surrounds a surface of each of the metal magnetic particles 10.