An objective is to provide a carrier exhibiting stable charge providing ability in which sufficient charge can be provided to toner having a small particle diameter, and no image contamination such as fog caused by toner scattering via lack of electrification is generated. Another objective is to provide a carrier capable of maintaining a charging level of no interference for image formation even under the image forming condition at which a charging level for printing a number of prints continuously is difficult to be maintained. Disclosed is a carrier comprising a core particle made of ferrite possessing Mg and coated thereon, a resin, wherein the core particle has a ratio of the number of irregular-shaped core particles of at most 5%, based on the total number of core particles, and a surface of the core particle has grains having a maximum grain diameter of 2-5 .mu.m.