Cubic boron nitride sintered material and tool

A cubic boron nitride sintered material comprising:

• 40 volume % or more and 80 volume % or less of cubic boron nitride grains;
• and 20 volume % or more and 60 volume % or less of a binder phase, wherein
• an average grain size d of the cubic boron nitride grains is 0.1 μm or more and 3 μm or less,
• the binder phase includes
• at least one selected from a second group consisting of one element selected from a first group consisting of a group 4 element, a group 5 element, a group 6 element in a periodic table, and aluminum, an alloy consisting of two or more elements selected from the first group, and an intermetallic compound consisting of two or more elements selected from the first group, or
• at least one selected from a fourth group consisting of a first compound and a solid solution originated from the first compound, the first compound consisting of at least one element selected from the first group and at least one element selected from a third group consisting of nitrogen, carbon, boron, and oxygen,
• in a cross section of the cubic boron nitride sintered material, a variation coefficient Z of an area ratio of the cubic boron nitride grains is 0.25 or less, and
• the variation coefficient Z is obtained by providing 260 unit regions in total in an image obtained through binarization processing on a reflected electron image obtained by imaging the cross section of the cubic boron nitride sintered material at a magnification of 5,000 times with a scanning electron microscope, calculating a standard deviation of respective area ratios of the cubic boron nitride grains in the unit regions and an average of the area ratios based on the 260 unit regions in total, and dividing the standard deviation by the average, each of the unit regions having a square shape with each side having a length twice as large as the average grain size d of the cubic boron nitride grains.