How common are panic attacks?

Panic attacks can be very common. Anxiety is a natural human reaction to fear, how intense that reaction varies from person to person.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) the prevalence for panic attacks in the United States and Europe combined is around 2 - 3% of adults. This might not sound like a lot, but in reality that is almost around 35 million people in those continents alone, and these would only really account for people that have reported their panic attacks, not even people that have had them once or twice or very occasionally. Never feel like you're alone, panic attacks are common enough to be listed diagnostically, so it can not really be that rare, can it?