How to Fill Out and Submit SF-181: Ethnicity and Race Identification

The SF-181 form is a one-page federal document that asks you to self-identify your ethnicity and race for your employing agency’s personnel records. It takes about two minutes. Completing it is voluntary, and declining will not affect your job or application, but your agency is required to record the information one way or another. If you skip the form, a personnel staffer will enter their best guess based on visual observation.¹

Where to Get the Form

The Office of Personnel Management publishes the current SF-181 as a fillable PDF at opm.gov/forms/standard-forms, listed under “SF 181.” The listing notes the form is for use with current federal employees.² New hires usually receive it during onboarding rather than downloading it themselves, either on paper or as part of a digital onboarding packet. If you need a fresh copy later to update your identification, pull the PDF from OPM’s site, complete it on screen, and print it or submit it through your agency’s HR system.

How to Fill Out SF-181

The form has two identifying fields at the top and two demographic questions below.

Name and Social Security Number

Enter your full legal name and Social Security Number. OPM requests the SSN under Executive Order 9397, which allows agencies to use Social Security Numbers for orderly administration of personnel records. Providing your SSN is voluntary, and leaving it blank will not affect your employment. If you leave it off, your agency can retrieve it from other records already on file.¹

Question 1: Ethnicity

The first question asks whether you are Hispanic or Latino, defined on the form as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. Check “Yes” or “No.” This question is separate from the race question. If you identify as Hispanic or Latino, you still answer Question 2.¹

Question 2: Race

The second question lists five racial categories. Place an “X” next to every category that applies. You are not limited to one.

American Indian or Alaska Native: origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
Asian: origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including countries such as Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Black or African American: origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: origins in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
White: origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

The form explicitly instructs you to mark every category that applies.¹ No tribal enrollment or other documentation is required. The form relies entirely on self-identification.

What Happens If You Decline

Your decision to complete the form is voluntary. Declining triggers no discipline, no disqualification, and no negative note in your file.¹ Agencies still need the underlying data, though. Under 5 U.S.C. 7201, OPM must run a minority recruitment program designed to eliminate underrepresentation across civil service job categories, and agencies need demographic numbers to measure whether that program is working.³ Agencies also file annual workforce reports with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under Management Directive 715, broken down by race and ethnicity using OMB’s standards.⁴

To fill gaps when employees do not self-identify, agencies are authorized to record race and ethnicity through visual observation or existing personnel records.¹ Filling the form out yourself is the way to control how you are recorded. Skipping it means someone else makes the call.

How to Submit SF-181

Return the completed form to your agency’s human resources office. The channel varies. Some agencies accept it through a secure HR portal, others through internal mail or in person during onboarding. Ask your HR representative if you are unsure. At agencies using GSA’s HR Links system, you can update your ethnicity and race directly in the self-service portal without submitting a paper form at all.⁵

Once the data is entered into your agency’s personnel system, the paper form itself may be destroyed rather than filed. Treasury Directive 67-01, for example, requires that the SF-181 be destroyed after the data is recorded and specifies that no race or ethnicity data obtained through the form may be kept in an employee’s official personnel folder.⁶ Practices differ across agencies, so check with your HR office if you want to know exactly how yours handles the form after processing. The demographic data, stripped of personal identifiers, feeds into aggregate statistical reports used for workforce analysis, not into individual hiring or promotion decisions.

Changing Your Identification Later

You can update your race and ethnicity at any time by submitting a new SF-181 to your HR office or by using your agency’s self-service system. In HR Links, you open the Employee Personal Info tile, select “Ethnic Groups,” and edit your current entry on screen.⁵ There is no limit on how often you can update, and no requirement to explain why your identification changed.

Coming Changes Under the 2024 OMB Standards

The current SF-181 uses a two-question format, one for ethnicity and one for race. That structure is on track to change. In March 2024, the Office of Management and Budget published revised standards under Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 with three significant effects on how federal agencies will collect this data:

The separate ethnicity and race questions will merge into one question reading “What is your race and/or ethnicity? Select all that apply.” OMB found that the old two-question approach confused many Hispanic or Latino respondents, with more than 23 million people in the 2020 Census either skipping the race question or being classified as “Some Other Race.”
A new Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) category has been added for individuals with origins in the Middle East or North Africa, including Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Moroccan, and Israeli backgrounds. Those groups were previously included under “White.”
The updated minimum categories are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White.

Federal agencies must bring all existing data collection into compliance no later than March 28, 2029.⁷ OPM will need to revise the SF-181 before that deadline. The revised standards also drop the previous requirement that a person selecting American Indian or Alaska Native must maintain “tribal affiliation or community attachment,” broadening the definition to individuals with origins in the original peoples of North, Central, and South America.⁸

Until OPM releases an updated version, use the current SF-181 with its two-question format and five racial categories. If your agency has already started collecting data under the new standards through its HR system, follow the instructions your HR office provides.

1
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. SF-181 Ethnicity and Race Identification
2
U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Standard Forms
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 7201 – Antidiscrimination Policy; Minority Recruitment Program
4
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Frequently Asked Questions About Management Directive-715
5
General Services Administration. Updating Your Ethnicity and Race
6
U.S. Department of the Treasury. Treasury Directive 67-01
7
Federal Register. Revisions to OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity
8
Statistical Policy Directive No. 15. The 2024 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15