ABSTRACT:It is shown that the multiconfigurational character of the N-electron wave function can be treated by a new quantitative index, N eff , computed as a special matrix invariant of the full wave function. Along with N eff , a simpler index N eff av is given due to the Kutzelnigg and Smith open-shell theory. The indices are compared with an effective number of unpaired electrons introduced by Takatsuki, Fueno, and Yamaguchi. Full configuration interaction (FCI) computations on such quantities realized in the present work for atoms and dissociation reactions lead to the conclusion that all indices give a qualitatively similar picture. It is stressed that N eff as a more complicated quantity reflects a global complexity of the electronic state, while other indices represent the electron structure peculiarities only at the one-electron level.