Mysql Connections are string when checking from SHOW STATUS LIKE '%onn%';
Their docs indicate that connections variable is, 


  "The number of connection attempts (successful or not) to the MySQL
  server."


I just stopped and restarted the service on my dev server and connections dropped from 28 to 6.

Threads_connected is 


  "The number of currently open connections."


and those are shown using show processlist;