This invention relates to a single-particle positive electrode active material capable of exhibiting optimal battery performance, and also to a positive electrode and a lithium secondary battery comprising the positive electrode active material. The positive electrode active material comprises a lithium composite transition metaloxide having the composition shown in Formula 1 as described in this specification and being a single-particle form consisting of 10 or fewer primary particles, wherein the D0 of the primary particles obtained from SEM images... v,50 The particle size is 2.2 μm to 3.7 μm, and the proportion of small particles according to Equation 1 as described in this specification is 5% to 10%.