In a voltage booster circuit, a switching transistor turns on and off a flow of an electric current in a booster coil thereby to boost a voltage supplied form a d.c. power source. A back-up circuit is connected to the booster coil to store the boosted voltage as an output voltage. A current detection circuit detects an electric current flowing in the switching transistor and turns off the switching transistor, when the detected current reaches a predetermined level. An off-period control circuit variably controls an off-period of the switching transistor after the switching transistor is turned off. The off-period control circuit varies the off-period in accordance with a voltage difference between the output voltage and an upper limit threshold voltage. The off-period of the switching transistor is increased as the output voltage increases toward the upper limit threshold voltage