The electronic structure of f-electron systems is calculated with the self-
interaction-corrected local-spin-density (LSD) approximation. This scheme a
llows for a splitting of the f-electron manifold into an integral number of
localized electrons and self-consistently determined fractional number of
band electrons. Therefore, in comparison with the LSD approximation, where
all f states are pinned at the Fermi energy, only a maximum of one f band i
s left at the Fermi energy. We show that this band is partially occupied wi
th occupancy n(f), and the f-electron fluctuations are reduced compared wit
h the LSD approximation. When n(f) exceeds a critical value of approximatel
y 0.6, it becomes energetically more favourable to localize this state, and
the number of valence bands is reduced by one.