A magnetic recording medium is a tape-shaped magnetic recording medium that has a recording layer including an ε-iron oxide particle. An area ratio Rlow (=(Slow/Stotal)×100) of a total area Stotal of an SFD curve of the recording layer in a perpendicular direction and an area Slow of the SFD curve in which a coercivity Hc is in a range from −500 [Oe]≤Hc≤500 [Oe] is equal to or less than 5.5%.