Abstract: A magneto-optical recording medium comprises, at least a transparent base plate, a dielectric layer formed on one major surface of the transparent base plate, and a recording magnetic layer formed over the dielectric layer. The dielectric layer may be a single-layer structure consisting of a dense dielectric film or may be a two-layer structure consisting of a porous dielectric film formed contiguously with the transparent base plate, and a dense dielectric film formed contiguously with the recording magnetic layer. The magneto-optical recording medium has high recording magnetic field sensitivity and excellent mechanical properties, and is capable of satisfactorily functioning for recording/reading operation on either a magnetic modulation recording system or an optical modulation recording system.