That big wave of less-educated white voters? It never happened.

White working-class people were no more likely to vote in this presidential election than in the previous one. Trump’s victory was not due to a spike in turnout among his base supporters.

But there were significant changes in turnout among other demographics. Significant drops in black and Hispanic turnout may have cost Hillary Clinton some previously blue states.

These estimates of voter turnout in the 2016 election came Wednesday from the Census Bureau, which surveyed about a hundred thousand people across the nation, providing the most comprehensive examination of who voted and didn’t.

Nationwide, turnout was similar to 2012 — about 61 percent of citizens — a few percentage points lower than in 2008 and 2004. But that pattern didn’t hold with many demographic groups.

Turnout among black voters plummeted from a record high 66 percent in 2012 to 59 percent in 2016 — similar to where it was when John Kerry was on the ballot. No other racial group saw such a substantial change between the elections, with Hispanic and Asian citizens voting at lower rates than white voters.

When you break the numbers down further, a surprising trend emerges: White people without college degrees turned out at just under 58 percent, less than a percentage point higher than in 2012.

The group did break strongly for Trump — 66 percent compared with Romney’s 61 according to the network exit poll — a big contributor to Trump’s victory. But the Census data suggest Trump did not inspire a major surge in turnout among his signature demographic..

Among the six states that went for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016, only Florida saw a noticeable jump in white non-college-educated turnout, from 56 to 59 percent turnout. That, in tandem with significant drops in black and Hispanic turnout, helped Trump the win there.

In Iowa, the non-college-educated white turnout dropped an estimated 8 points, to 57 percent, though it dropped only 2 points among white college graduates. Rather than a turnout boost, Trump won by winning a larger share of support among white voters overall than Mitt Romney.

The other states that flipped between the elections saw no meaningful change in white non-college-educated turnout. For many of them, what made the difference was the drop in black or Hispanic turnout. In Ohio, where Clinton lost by 8 points and Obama won by 3, black turnout dropped from 72 to 65 percent.

And in Michigan, where Clinton lost by a mere 0.2 percent and Obama won by 9, Hispanic turnout saw a huge drop.

There are many factors that may have contributed to a victory that was decided by a mere 78,000 votes. But now we know one thing it wasn’t: spiking turnout among Trump’s core constituency.