The debate about whether the development of fascist racism as a state institution was influenced by earlier Italian eugenic research or whether it was formally independent from it is still controversial to this day. Before the First International Eugenic Congress, held in London in 1912, Italian eugenics was not characterized by a clear program of scientific research. With the advent of fascism, however, the equality “number = strength” became the foundation of Italian eugenics. This idea, according to which the improvement of a nation relies on the amplitude of its population, was conceived by statistician Corrado Gini (1884-1965) in 1912. Gini, who was an active part of the fascist regime, had a tremendous influence on Benito Mussolini’s (1883-1945) political campaigns, and shaped Italian social sciences for almost two decades. He was also a committed racist, as documented by a series of indisputable statements from the primary literature. These findings place Gini as a logical connector between early Italian eugenics, fascism, and state racism, highlighting the way in which the deployment of eugenic knowledge was connected to the political and social discourse of the fascist regime.