Bulgaria has climbed 9 spots over the past year in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index in 2015 compared to the year before.

EIU's Democracy in Age of Anxiety report also shows reads that "the former communist Balkan countries have lagged behind central Europe in terms of democratic standards as well as economic performance, although several Balkan countries made progress in 2015, notably Albania and Bulgaria."

The progress of Bulgaria is singled out, with the country leaving behind a period of political instability and protests (2013-2014) and scoring 7.14 points out of 10 (compared to 6.73 points).

On a global scale, Bulgaria now ranks 46th, while in 2014 it was 55th. On a regional scale, it is seventh out of ten, performing worse than Slovakia, Slovenia and Greece, but not than Poland, Croatia and Romania.

There are stark contrasts in the performance of the country with regard to different elements of democratic culture, according to the EIU.

The country's election process is evaluated with 9.17 points, and "civil liberties" scoop 8.24 points, whereas Bulgaria ranks poorly in "political culture" with 5.00 points.

Norway, Iceland and Sweden top the list of "full democracies," with only two of the first ten (Canada and New Zealand) not being European countries and the United States ranking No. 20.

However, European countries such as Italy, the Czech Republic, Belgium, France, Estonia and Portugal are ranked as "flawed democracies".