The purpose of the present invention is to provide an absorbent body and absorbent article having high absorption efficiency. The absorbent body (4) contains non-wood pulp, and the settling rate of the non-wood pulp in water is 2-5 seconds. Furthermore, the average fiber diameter of the non-wood pulp is 8-25µm, and the apparent bulk density is 0.04-0.07g/cm3. The amount of 0.9% saline the non-wood pulp can absorb is at least 20 times the mass of the pulp. The absorbent article (1) contains the abovementioned absorbent body (4). The change in thickness of the absorbent body (4) of the absorbent article (1) after absorbing the 0.9% saline is at least 600% relative to the thickness thereof before absorbing the 0.9% saline. Furthermore, when an evaluation of the absorption rate of the absorbent body (4) is carried out three times, once every 10 minutes, by injecting 80mL of the 0.9% saline into the absorbent article over 10 seconds, the absorption rate for each of the three times is 20 seconds or less. The absorption rate is the duration from the injection of the 0.9% saline until absorption is completed.
