The purpose of the present invention is to provide a shaped nonwoven fabric having a sophisticated appearance and texture like knitted fabrics. This nonwoven fabric (1) for absorbent articles contains thermoplastic resin fibers. The nonwoven fabric is provided with a plurality of ridge units (7) including a base (9), a ridge (11) and a plurality of recesses (13). The ridge of each of the plurality of the ridge units has a longitudinal direction (L) extending in a first direction (D1) and a width direction (W) extending in a second direction (D2) perpendicular to the first direction, and protrudes upward (TU) from the base. Each of the plurality of recesses (13) is located in an area (19) surrounding the ridge and recessed downward (TL) from the base. The nonwoven fabric is provided with a plurality of first direction ridge unit groups (31) each of which includes a plurality of ridge units so that a plurality of ridges are arranged at first ridge intervals (IR1) in the first direction. The plurality of first direction ridge unit groups are arranged at a second direction pitch (P2) in the second direction.
