To provide a cold cathode fluorescent lamp and an illumination device that have high luminance maintenance factor and long life and contribute to performance improvement of OA equipment and liquid crystal devices.

This is a cold cathode fluorescent lamp 11 that comprises a glass tube 1 on the inner wall of which a phosphor layer 2 is provided and mercury and rare gas are filled as a discharge media, a lead wire 3 that is sealed and introduced opposed to each other at both ends in the glass tube 1 and is connected to a lead wire for outside feeding, and a discharge electrode 4 that is respectively electrically connected to the facing top end of the lead wire 3. A metal oxide layer 5 having high affinity to mercury is coated on the phosphor layer 2 in the region excluding the main irradiation face 6 of the above cold cathode fluorescent lamp 11.