The DYSTURB database collates, harmonises and inter-relates over time the following different elements: a set of political, administrative and functional maps of the districts, provinces and urban areas; the demographic and administrative data for all South African localities from 1911. In all, the 20 000 geo-referenced localities of the 2001 census are put in perspective in terms of spatio-temporal parameters, demographic history and urban dynamics, through the post-colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid periods.