Non-woven fabric for liquid-permeable sheet of absorbent article, and absorbent article which includes said non-woven fabric as liquid-permeable sheet

A nonwoven fabric to be used for a liquid permeable sheet of an absorbent article, which includes a thickness direction, a plane direction, a first surface, and a second surface, the nonwoven fabric comprising:

• thermoplastic resin fibers;
• and
• cellulose based fibers a portion of which configures a plurality of separate fiber masses,
• wherein
• the nonwoven fabric comprises a plurality of gap portions which are adjacent to a first region that faces the first surface in each of the plurality of separate fiber masses,
• each of the plurality of separate fiber masses is not joined to the thermoplastic resin fibers,
• the nonwoven fabric comprises a matrix configured by the thermoplastic resin fibers and the cellulose based fibers, and
• the plurality of separate fiber masses are dispersed in the matrix.