An incoming wave number estimation device for receiving incoming radio waves by an array antenna in which a plurality (=M) of antenna elements are linearly arrayed with a same element spacing, and estimating the number of the incoming radio waves, including: a correlation matrix creation section for removing a diagonal element from a predetermined row or column constituting an M.times.M array covariance matrix, and creating a correlation matrix by extracting a predetermined p number of correlations from (M-1) number of correlations after the diagonal element is removed while sequentially shifting one element at a time, and arraying the p number correlations in a matrix; an estimation matrix creation section for creating an estimation matrix for estimating the incoming wave number using the correlation matrix; a QR decomposition section for performing QR decomposition on the estimation matrix; and an incoming wave number determination section for determining the number of incoming radio waves based on each row element of an upper triangular matrix factor obtained by the QR decomposition.