The nitride semiconductor light emitting device includes a nitride semiconductor underlayer (102) grown on a surface of a nitride semiconductor substrate or a surface of a nitride semiconductor substrate layer laminated over a base substrate of other than a nitride semiconductor, and a light emitting device structure having a light emitting layer (106) including a quantum well layer or a quantum well layer and a barrier layer in contact with the quantum well layer between an n type layer (103-105) and a p type layer (107-110) over the nitride semiconductor underlayer. It includes a depression (D) not flattened on a surface of the light emitting device structure even after growth of the light emitting device structure.