To provide a protective material and protective clothes having a high protective performance against particularly the penetration of a liquid harmful chemical substance under a pressurized condition and harmful fine dusts, bacteria and aerosols such as virus and alleviating physiological burden since their weights are not sharply increased.

The protective material has at least one or more absorbent layer 2 and a water-repellent/oil-repellent layer 3 layers, and when clothes are viewed from outside, one or more water-repellent/oil-repellent layers are arranged inside of the absorbent layer. The average monofilament diameter of the absorbent layer of at least one layer is 1 nm and 1,000 nm.