A magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic substrate on which at least a soft magnetic underlayer, an orientation control layer, a perpendicular magnetic layer, and a protective layer are disposed. The perpendicular magnetic layer includes first to fourth magnetic layers. A first exchange coupling control layer is disposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer. A second exchange coupling control layer is disposed between the second magnetic layer and the third magnetic layer. Following relations are satisfied where Kui is a magnetic anisotropic constant of an i-th magnetic layer, Msi is a saturation magnetization of the i-th magnetic layer, and ti is a film thickness of the i-th magnetic layer, Ku1>Ku2, Ku2>Ku3, Ms1×t1>Ms2×t2, Ms2×t2>Ms3×t3, Ku3