The present invention provides an outer-surface sheet for an absorbent article. The outer-surface sheet for an absorbent article uses a non-woven fabric that comprises short fibers, and fuzzing of the short fibers is suppressed, even without smoothing an outer surface using a calender roll or the like. An outer-surface sheet (2) according to the present invention includes a non-woven fabric that is formed from short fibers, and includes a hydrophobic gel composition that can remain a gel at 38 ℃. A skin-surface-side surface of the outer-surface sheet has a coated region (6) that is coated with the gel composition, and has an un-coated region (7) that is not coated with the gel composition. In the coated region (6), the gel composition at least partially fills voids that are formed between the short fibers of the non-woven fabric and is exposed at the skin-surface-side surface of the outer-surface sheet (2).