how many apps will a 32gb ipad mini hold?

There's no way to give a number since it depends on the size of the apps. Some are quite small, but some take up a lot of space. I have apps as small as 7MB and some well over 300MB, and I'm sure those are by no means the largest apps that exist. So there's no way we can really answer your question other than to say that after taking into account the amount of space the OS and bundles apps take up and the difference in how the capacity is listed between technical specs and what an operating system can use, a 32GB iPad will have about 28GB of usable capacity.

Regards.