44% of Kansas adults say they are currently in dept, according to a recent SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for KWCH-TV in Wichita. In tracking dating back three years and displayed above, that number has never before been this high, and has spiked 12 points over just the past two months.

Other findings from the poll, full results of which are available here:

• 5% of Kansans with mortgages on their homes say they’re currently behind in their payments, up ever-so-slightly from 3% in February. Based on the 2006 US Census estimate of 495,047 owner-occupied homes in Kansas, that 5% figure represents nearly 25,000 Kansas homes.
• Fourteen months ago, 19% of Kansans described the national economy as being strong. That’s three times as many as feel that way today, when just 6% say the US economy is strong. 49% describe the economy as weak today, while 43% say it’s somewhere in-between.
• The Kansas economy is seen as being stronger than the national: 13% say the state’s economy is strong, more than twice the number saying that about the US economy; 27% say it is weak, significantly less than the 49% who describe the national economy that way.
• 83% of Kansas adults say they have cut back on their spending; 38% said they cut back “a lot,” and 45% say they have done so “a little.”  Only 16% say they have not cut back at all.