An exposure apparatus is equipped with an encoder system which measures positional information of a wafer stage by irradiating a measurement beam using four heads installed on the wafer stage on a scale plate which covers the movement range of the wafer stage except for the area right under a projection optical system. Placement distances of the heads here are each set to be larger than width of the opening of the scale plates, respectively. This allows the positional information of the wafer stage to be measured, by switching and using the three heads facing the scale plate out of the four heads according to the position of the wafer stage.