A water-absorbent sheet composite (10) having such a structure that an absorbent layer (13) which contains both a water -absorbent resin (12) and an adhesive (11) is sandwiched between face and back non-woven fabric sheets, wherein (1) the face non-woven fabric sheet (14) is made of a water-permeable non-woven fabric having a water penetration velocity of 10 sec or below, and (2) the back non-woven fabric sheet (15) is made of a water-holding non-woven fabric having a water absorbing capacity of 250g/m2 or more and an absorbent article wherein the water-absorbent sheet composite (10) is sandwiched between a liquid-permeable sheet and a liquid-impermeable sheet. This water-absorbent sheet composite (10) is thin and exhibits excellent effects such as rapid permeation of liquid, little back-flow of liquid and little leakage of liquid, so that the use of the water-absorbent sheet composite (10) as an absorber makes it possible to provide a thin sanitary material with an excellent body fit and so on.
