A plastic optical fiber low in attenuation in a high order mode and small in mode dispersion, is presented. The plastic optical fiber comprises at least a core and a clad surrounding the core, characterized in that the core has a refractive index which gradually decreases from the core center towards the outside in the radial direction of the plastic optical fiber, and the refractive index of the clad is lower than the refractive index of the core center and higher than the refractive index of the core periphery.