The present invention addresses the problem of providing a mask blank that makes it possible to further miniaturize a mask pattern or a hard mask pattern and improving the pattern quality, and to resolve this problem, a mask blank (100) has a structure in which a thin film (3) for pattern formation and a hard mask film (4) are laminated in this order on a transparent substrate (1), wherein the hard mask film (4) is configured so that a narrow spectrum of Si2p obtained by analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy has a maximum peak at a binding energy of 103 eV or more, a maximum peak of a narrow spectrum of N1s obtained by analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is equal to or less than a detection lower limit value, and the content ratio (atomic %) of silicon and oxygen is less than Si:O=1:2.