The Varieties of Democracy project, hosted at the University of Gothenburg, produces the largest and most detailed dataset on democratic health in the world—covering nearly every country and, for many, reaching back more than two centuries.
Rather than treating democracy as a single on/off score, V-Dem measures hundreds of specific indicators grouped into distinct dimensions—electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian—drawing on thousands of country experts and a transparent, published methodology.
For anyone asking "is democracy really declining, or does it just feel that way?", this is where the evidence lives. Its annual Democracy Reports track global trends, including the recent wave of "autocratization," and its interactive tools let you chart any country's trajectory over time.
It is a primary source, not commentary—the place to check claims about backsliding, here and abroad, against systematic, comparative measurement rather than headlines.