One of the leading sources of human rights data is the Varieties of Democracy Institute, Sweden and the civil freedoms index that it measures. The index values vary between 0 (minimum rights) and 1 (maximum rights). The evaluation of a number of rights specifics is based on expert opinions. The Institute provide public access to its data, the questions asked in the survey and the coding process. The survey is annual.

The data are not desegregated by demographic characteristics like gender, ethnic origin, age etc. They do not show whether the states provide and protect the human rights but capture the current situation in comparative perspective with other states and visualize the development in the human rights protection in time.

The index values for the countries of the European Economic area (ЕU + Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein) and the United Kingdom are in the range of 0.88 – 0.96 and the average value is 0.92.

The index value for Bulgaria is 0.9, below Europe’s average.