The idea of statistics as the ‘science of government’ has been, from the mid-nineteenth century on, a formative, recurrent and rallying theme of the discourse held by statisticians in many countries. International encounters such as the nine statistical congresses held between 1853 and 1876 or the biennial meetings of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) from 1887 on, were among the privileged occasions during which statisticians upheld this vision and propounded various projects ranging from agreement on international classifications (of diseases, of causes of death, of occupations, etc.) to the creation of an International Statistical Office and the organization of a World Census. Besides these, statisticians were significantly present in a number of international gatherings, among which congresses on hygiene and demography (sixteen were held from 1851 to 1912), on medicine (which had a statistical section, seventeen were held from 1867 to 1913), on anthropology and prehistoric archeology (where anthropometry, that Queteletian creation, was abundantly discussed, fourteen from 1866 to 1912), criminal anthropology (seven from 1885 to 1911), geography (ten from 1871 to 1910), sociology (eight from 1894 to 1912), actuarial science (seven from 1895 to 1912), social insurance (thirteen from 1889 to 1915), industry and commerce (four from 1900 to 1911), agriculture (eight from 1889 and 1913), the Universal Races Congress (1911) and the First International Congress on Eugenics (1912).