"White Ladder" spent almost three full years in the UK top 100, consistently charting between May 2000 and March 2003. Its total charting time as of 2020 is 176 weeks, making it one of the longest-charting albums in UK chart history. It was massively successful in Ireland, where it spent six consecutive weeks at number one on the Irish Albums Chart and had sold 350,000 copies by 2002. In 2015 it was still the biggest-selling album of all time in that country. "White Ladder" was the fifth-best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK, selling 2.9 million copies. "White Ladder" has sold over 3 million copies in the UK, making it the tenth-best-selling album of the 21st century and the 26th-best-selling album of all time. The album has sold over 7 million copies worldwide.