PURPOSE: To obtain a wool-like acrylic conjugate fiber having excellent crimp- developing property and dyeability and exhibiting the development of crimp varying along the direction of fiber axis.

CONSTITUTION: This acrylic conjugate fiber is obtained by bonding a component having high thermal shrinkage to a component having low thermal shrinkage in a side-by-side state along the direction of fiber axis. The difference of the content of the 2nd monomer component in the acrylonitrile between the above components is 1-10wt.% and the amount of sulfonic acid group in the high thermal shrinkage component is larger than that of the low-shrinkage component by 0.2-10wt.%. The sulfonic acid group content varies in the direction of fiber axis at a period of 50-600mm in a range satisfying the formulas 1.2≤ (Amax/ Amin) ≤ 3 and 0.24≤ (A-B) × (Amax/Amin) ≤2.5 wherein Amax and Amin are the maximum and the minimum values of the sulfonic acid group content in the high-shrinkage component in fiber direction, respectively, and A and B are the average sulfonic acid contents of the high-shrinkage component and the low-shrinkage component in the fiber direction, respectively. The obtained conjugate fiber has excellent crimp-developing property and the developed crimps vary in the direction of fiber axis.