An electroluminescent phosphor comprising: ZnS-based phosphor particles and a coating layer provided on a surface of the particle, wherein the particles have an average particle size of from 0.1 to 20 μm, and a coefficient of variation in a particle size distribution of less than 35%, and a content of particles having 10 or more stacking faults with an interplanar spacing of 5 nm or less is 30% or more based on all of the ZnS-based phosphor particles.