Well, most of the married folks I know remain married. I always suspected the 50% figure myself.
My suspicion of the 50% figure is based on my sense that while maybe 50% of all marriages fail, not 50% of all married people end up divorcing. If I'm not mistaken, second marriages have a much higher failure rate. You see people with two or three divorces, and others with one marriage. I think perhaps the confusion is in number of divorces vs. number of people who have been divorced. For every 42 year marriage, you have someone thinking "fourth time's the charm!"
You know...I have always thought the same thing. I guess I just hang out in the wrong crowd...
Ping to what I just posted.