The present invention provides an exhaust gas purification catalyst including an alkaline earth metal supported in a highly dispersed state on a porous carrier. A catalyst layer of the exhaust gas purification catalyst provided by the invention has an alkaline earth metal-supporting region including a porous carrier, a catalyst metal belonging to the platinum group, and a sulfate of at least one type of alkali earth metal supported on the porous carrier. In a cross-section of this region, a Pearson correlation coefficient RAe/M is at least 0.5 as calculated using α and β for each pixel obtained by carrying out area analysis by FE-EPMA under conditions of pixel size of 0.34 μm×0.34 μm, and measured pixel number 256×256, and by measuring the characteristic X-ray intensity (α: cps) of the alkaline earth metal element (Ae) and the characteristic X-ray intensity (β: cps) of the main constituent element of the inorganic compound constituting the porous carrier for each pixel.