A permanent magnet type three-phase stepping motor that is simple in construction, with reduced vibration, a reduced unbalanced force in the radial direction, and high torque that can be manufactured at a low cost. The permanent magnet type three-phase stepping motor has a stator and a rotor arranged concentrically with the stator and with an air gap therebetween, said stator having three stator poles, and stator windings of three-phase each wound around each stator pole, each of said stator poles having m pieces of stator pole tooth, said rotor having two split rotor elements, a permanent magnet held between the rotor elements and magnetized so as to form N and S poles in the axial direction thereof, and a plurality (Nr) of small rotor teeth formed at a regular pitch on the outer peripheral surface of each of said rotor elements, said two split rotor elements being circumferentially shifted from each other by a 1/2 pitch of the small rotor teeth, wherein a pitch of the stator pole teeth is smaller than the pitch of the small rotor teeth, m is an integer and (Nr.+-.2.sup.k)/3, Nr is 3n.+-.1, n is an integer not less than 1, and k is an integer not less than 1 and not more than 4.