An ink jet recording medium including a substrate and an ink receiving layer provided on the substrate and composed of two or more layers of at least an upper layer and a lower layer. The ink receiving layer contains polyvinyl alcohol in an amount of 12.7% by mass or more based on the total mass of the ink receiving layer. The upper layer is a layer most distant from the substrate, contains a pigment and polyvinyl alcohol, the pigment containing 90% by mass or more of alumina hydrate, and has a thickness of 3.0-10.0 μm. The lower layer is positioned just under the upper layer, contains a pigment and polyvinyl alcohol, the pigment containing 20% by mass or more of silica, and has a thickness 2.5-10 times larger than that of the upper layer and an average pore radius 0.90-1.30 times larger than that of the upper layer.