The purpose of the present invention is to provide a nonwoven fabric for use in the top sheet of an absorbent article that is unlikely to become sticky after absorbing menstrual blood, that has a silky feel, and that makes it difficult for absorbed menstrual blood to spread on the nonwoven fabric. The nonwoven fabric of the present invention has the configuration indicated below. The nonwoven fabric (5) is for use in the top sheet of an absorbent article, has a lengthwise direction (L) and a width direction (C), and is characterized in that: the non-woven fabric (5) has a plurality of units (6) in the width direction (C) that comprise four areas, namely a first area (1), a second area (2), a third area (3), and a fourth area (4) that extend in the lengthwise direction (L) the second area (2) and the fourth area (4) have a higher content by percentage of fibers that are oriented in the lengthwise direction (L) than the third area (3) the first area (1) has a higher content by percentage of fibers that are oriented in the width direction (C) than the third area (3) the second area (2), the third area (3), and the fourth area (4) respectively comprise a second area (12) containing a predetermined blood lubricity-imparting agent, a third area (13) containing the blood lubricity-imparting agent, and a fourth area (14) containing the blood lubricity-imparting agent and in that the basis weights of the blood-lubricity imparting agent in the second area (12) containing the blood lubricity-imparting and in the fourth area (14) containing the blood lubricity-imparting agent are higher than the basis weight of the blood lubricity-imparting agent in the third area (13) containing the blood-lubricity imparting agent.
