A wide-angle projection lens includes, in order from an object side: a first lens group including four lenses and having a negative refractive power; and a second lens group including a cemented lens and having a positive refractive power. The first lens group includes an aspherical lens and a spherical lens having a positive refractive power. The wide-angle projection lens further includes an iris diaphragm located after the first lens of the second lens group from the object side, and satisfies the following conditional expressions fb/f3, -2.0D₁₂/f₁-1.3, and 0.8Lr/Lf1.2 where f denotes the focal length of the projection lens; fb denotes the retrofocal length of the projection lens; f₁ denotes the focal length of the first lens group; Lf denotes the thickness of the first lens group; Lr denotes the thickness of the second lens group; and D₁₂ denotes the distance between the first and second lens groups.