Open Data

The website Оpendata.bg was created in 2010 by Open Society Institute – Sofia to publish the products of the surveys carried out by the Institute’s team for sociological studies and statistical analyses. It contains the main topics covered by the studies carried out, their methodologies and results in the form of univariate distributions and development trends by certain issues. The concept of the website is to provide an information portal presenting the work of the team for sociological studies and statistical analyses, and at the same time a database for free access to primary data from some of the surveys. The website has several main lines of development.

  • First, it is where the results of the regular omnibus surveys are published, whereby the univariate distributions are presented by main topics. These surveys are carried out once or twice a year and deal with basic socio-economic and political topics, including question sections regarding hate speech, social distances and attitudes towards the European Union.
  • Second, based on the regular omnibus surveys, the trends in the development of public opinion on certain topics are followed. The website presents analyses of the changes in public attitudes since 2010, which outline the dynamics of the views of Bulgarian society during the period studied according to the priority topics of the Institute.
  • Third, results of specific studies conducted by the team are presented, for instance Human Resources in Bulgaria’s Public Health – a survey focused on the opinion of medical experts about the state of health care and their attitudes towards emigration, carried out with the support of the Bulgarian Medical Association; Crisis Monitoring Survey – panel study of the impact of the crisis on Bulgarian households, conducted together with the World Bank.
  • Fourth, a platform is developed within Оpendata.bg to upload results, when possible, the files with the primary data and methodologies of the respective surveys, which are available free of charge for research purposes.

The creation and development of Оpendata.bg is the result of the long experience of Open Society Institute – Sofia in carrying out surveys and the need of space where their results could be published. At the same time, Оpendata.bg is the logical result of the Institute’s belief that the road to open democratic societies goes through access to information, sharing research results, data and methodology with everyone who wants to obtain them. The open data policy creates a community of seeking and informed people, who are the main guarantor of society’s civil development. Last but not least, through the systematic publication of the surveys carried out the team for sociological studies and statistical analyses aims to create a protocol of the survey results comprising not only the figures themselves, but also the survey methodology, the overall population the survey refers to and the period in which it was conducted.

For more information on the surveys carried put, please go to Analyses and Reports .

You can find the most interesting results in Facts and Figures.

Contacts:

opendata@osi.bg