A blood pressure detection apparatus includes a pressure sensor, a press mechanism that applies pressure to a blood vessel by pressing a living body, and can gradually decrease the pressure, and a blood pressure calculation section that determines the pressure when a given waveform pattern appears in a waveform of pulse waves obtained by the pressure sensor to be a maximal blood pressure, determines the pressure when the waveform has a maximum amplitude to be a mean blood pressure, and calculates a minimal blood pressure using the maximal blood pressure and the mean blood pressure.
