The proportion of top grades awarded to A-level students in Northern Ireland has fallen marginally but students still outperformed their counterparts in Wales and England.
The percentage of A* and A grades decreased to 34.5 per compared to 35.9 per cent last year.
Overall, the pass rate remained unchanged with 98 per cent achieving grades A*-E this year.
About 2,800 A* awards were achieved in Northern Ireland with the most popular subjects including Biology, Maths and English.
Students in Northern Ireland are increasingly opting for A-levels, with entries reaching a record high of 32,582.
Science, technology, engineering and maths also remained among the most popular choices and continue to show strong performance.
CCEA director of qualifications Anne Marie Duffy said: "The figures released today show that our students have achieved a first class set of results.
"Overall, performance is comparable with previous years." Languages saw a decrease in entries, with German down by 21.9 per cent and French by 19.7 per cent. Irish entries decreased by 6.8 per cent while Spanish saw the only increase in language entries.
Females outperformed boys in achieving A* or A. Overall, 8.6 per cent (9.5 per cent last year) of results were A* compared to 8.2 per cent in Northern Ireland, England and Wales.
This is the fifth year in which vocational applied exams like applied ICT or leisure and tourism or social care have been offered and this year saw a small rise in entries.
By 7.30am more than 8,000 students had accessed their results via the CCEA website.
CCEA officials said the system was working well.
Education minister John O'Dowd said: "These results are the product of hard work over many years by our young people with support from their teachers and parents. I congratulate everyone involved.
"Some of you will not get the results you were hoping for today and I would urge you not to worry. There are so many options open to you, whether you want to continue pursuing your career of choice, or maybe rethink your plans and try something totally new.
More than 250,000 teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland received their long-awaited A-level results today with the the overall A*-E pass rising to 97.8 per cent.
National figures published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) show that boys have closed the gap with girls on A* grades.
Some 8.2 per cent of boys' entries achieved an A* this year, up from 7.9 per cent in 2010. Girls' performance dipped slightly, with 8.2 per cent of girls' entries awarded the top grade, down from 8.3 per cent.
PA