To provide a zoom lens whose entire lens system is compact and which has a high zoom ratio and achieves high optical performance over the entire zoom range.

The zoom lens includes, in order from the object side to the image side, a first lens group having a negative refractive power, a second lens group having a positive refractive power, and a third lens group having a positive refractive power, and the distances between the adjacent lens groups are changed during zooming. The first lens group includes, in order from the object side to the image side, a negative lens and a positive lens. The focal distance f1p of the positive lens in the first lens group, the focal distance fw of the entire system at the wide angle end, the curvature radius r12 of the image side lens surface of the negative lens in the first lens group, and the curvature radius r21 of the object side lens surface of the positive lens in the first lens group are appropriately set, respectively.