A tape-like magnetic recording medium includes a reinforced substrate, and a recording layer arranged on the reinforced substrate, and the reinforced substrate includes a substrate that has a first face and a second face opposed to each other, and has an average thickness of 4 μm or smaller, and a metal layer that contains cobalt, arranged on the first face, the reinforced substrate by itself causing thereon a depth of indentation of 0.25 μm or shallower, when a 0.7-mm-diameter hard sphere is impressed against the second face under 5.0 gf load for 10 seconds.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder, in which one or more kinds of component selected from the group consisting of a fatty acid and a fatty acid amide are included in a portion of the magnetic layer side on the non-magnetic support, and a C—H derived C concentration calculated from a C—H peak surface area ratio in C1s spectra obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis performed on a surface of the magnetic layer at a photoelectron take-off angle of 10 degrees, after pressing the magnetic layer at a pressure of 70 atm is 45 atom % or more.

A tape-like magnetic recording medium includes a reinforced substrate, and a recording layer arranged on the reinforced substrate, and the reinforced substrate includes a substrate that has a first face and a second face opposed to each other, and has an average thickness of 4 μm or smaller, and a metal layer that contains cobalt, arranged on the first face, the reinforced substrate by itself causing thereon a depth of indentation of 0.25 μm or shallower, when a 0.7-mm-diameter hard sphere is impressed against the second face under 5.0 gf load for 10 seconds.

The magnetic recording medium includes a non-magnetic support; and a magnetic layer including a ferromagnetic powder, in which one or more kinds of component selected from the group consisting of a fatty acid and a fatty acid amide are included in a portion of the magnetic layer side on the non-magnetic support, and a CH derived C concentration calculated from a CH peak surface area ratio in C1s spectra obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis performed on a surface of the magnetic layer at a photoelectron take-off angle of 10 degrees, after pressing the magnetic layer at a pressure of 70 atm is 45 atom % or more.

A magnetic recording medium has a recording surface having an average surface roughness SRa of 3.0 nm or less, the number of projections having a height of 7.5 nm or more included in a unit region (where the unit region is a square region with each side having a length of 30 m) of the recording surface is 256 or more, and the number of projections having a height of 15 nm or more included in the unit region of the recording surface is 0 or more and 104 or less.

A magnetic recording medium has a recording surface having an average surface roughness SRa of 3.0 ?m or less, the number of projections having a height of 7.5 nm or more included in a unit region (where the unit region is a square region with each side having a length of 30 ?m) of the recording surface is 256 or more, and the number of projections having a height of 15 nm or more included in the unit region of the recording surface is 0 or more and 104 or less.