Provided are: a water-absorbent resin which, when used as an absorbent material, retains a high water-absorption performance, increases the diffusivity of a to-be-absorbed liquid and makes it possible to effectively decrease the amount of re-wet； and an absorbent article formed using an absorbent material including the water-absorbent resin. The water-absorbent resin according to the present invention is a water-absorbent resin obtained by polymerizing a water-soluble ethylenically monomer in the presence of an internal-crosslinking agent and thereafter post-crosslinking the polymer with a post-crosslinking agent, characterized in that when subjected to a liquid flow test, the water-absorbent resin has an effective absorbent material index (K) indicated by equation (I) of 250 or greater. Effective absorbent material index K = the amount of liquid flow g × artificial ˆ’ urine absorption ratio g / g
